CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Alginate-based hydrogels are being produced worldwide for a broad spectrum of biotechnological applications, from biomedicine to agriculture. In particular, nanosized alginate-based particles have emerged as promising platforms mainly for drug delivery applications. In view of their size they can be delivered in a minimally invasive manner, and being structurally similar to the extracellular matrix of many tissues they freely diffuse to the target cells. The mild conditions of the sol-gel process are intrinsically adapted for the development of applications that require the inclusion of bio-entities during synthesis. However, one of the limitations of these systems is the fast gelling rate that hinders an adequate inclusion of bioactive molecules in nano-size hydrogel systems. In this work, we present a literature review and explore the classical theoretical work on sol-gel chemistry of alginates to discuss the range of conditions in which alginate sol-gel processes can be controlled, aiming at nanogel preparation. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]