College of Arts & Sciences

Long Tran College of Engineering Chemical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Haifeng Ji Chemistry

Zhen Qiao Co-Mentor

Highly stretchable gelatin-polyacrylamide hydrogel for transdermal drug delivery

Hydrogels have been recently revealed as an efficient carrier for transdermal drug delivery. The purpose of this project is to study, examine, and enhance the in-vitro transdermal drug loading and release on the highly stretchable hydrogel system. This hydrogel system is mainly composed of poly-acrylamide (PAAm) and gelatin. N,N’-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) was used as the cross-linker. To increase the tensile strength of the hydrogel, several divalent metal ions solutions were dissolved before the gelation occurred. The drug loading process was performed by submerging a certain amount of hydrogel into an aqueous drug solution, which would be measured the concentration after the regular time interval. The maximized loading efficiency can be reached after a couple of days. After drug loading, in-vitro drug release was performed under controlled conditions. Cellulose Acetate Membrane was used to replica human skin, and PBS buffer solution within the pH range 5.5 - 5.9 was used to mimic human skin environment. Results showed that this hydrogel system can load and release drug at a high efficiency, which makes it a great candidate for transdermal drug delivery as well as other applications in material science.