Effect of Strain on Viscoelastic Behavior of Fresh, Swelled and Mineralized PVP-CMC Hydrogel

Mineralization of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in hydrogel matrix is one of the most interesting topics of research by material scientists for the development of bio-inspired polymeric biomaterial for biomedical applications especially for bone tissue regeneration. As per our knowledge there was no work reported about rheological properties of CaCO3 mineralized hydrogel though some works have done on mineralization of CaCO3 in various gel membranes, and also it was reported about the viscoelastic properties of Agarose, Cellulose, PVA and PVP-CMC hydrogels. This paper mainly focuses about the effect of strain on viscoelastic properties of fresh, swelled and mineralized (CaCO3) PVP-CMC hydrogel. All these three types of hydrogel sustain (or keep) strictly the elastic properties when low strain (1%) is applied, but at higher strain (10%) the viscoelastic moduli (G' and G '') show significant change, and the nature of these materials turned from elastic to viscous.