Characterizing Gelation Kinetics of Gelatin by Monitoring Viscosity

Thermo-responsive polymers can react to temperature variation and undergo reversible changes in microstructure or material state (e.g., sol-gel) that enable their use for a broad range of consumer, food, and biomedical applications, including stabilizing and emulsifying agents, wound treatment, drug delivery, tissue scaffold, contact lenses, cosmetics, and bio-inks.

Developing gelatin hydrogels for the above-mentioned applications requires an understanding of gelatin mechanical response. The study of the gelation kinetics and mechanisms of gel formation can give us information about microstructural evolution, including coil to helix transformation, and helix growth upon cooling the solution, and allows to link the microstructure of the gelatin network to the macroscale properties (e.g., mechanical properties).

In this application note, we show how we use the RheoSense VROC^® initium one plus to investigate the viscosity changes of gelatin solutions as a function of time in order to quantify the gelation kinetics of gelatin hydrogel.

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