Engineering Commons^™

Effects Of Hofmeister Ions On Solubility And Swelling On Gelatin Hydrogels, Hannah Eldridge

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Hydrogels are known to be weak and brittle, due to the amounts of water that they hold. Gelatin-based hydrogels specifically are inexpensive and easily accessible, but often have poor physical properties. The goal of my project was to strengthen gelatin-based hydrogels and improve their mechanical properties by forming these hydrogels in different aqueous solutions containing kosmotropic Hofmeister's ions. Prior research has shown that these ions are able to take water away from gelatin-based gels, which forms a tougher hydrogel. The success of this project will be measured by studying the solubility and swelling effects that different Hofmeister ions have on …