Ionic cross-linking, description

In recent years a large number of techniques have been suggested in the literature for immobilizing enzymes on insoluble carriers in particular, immobilization on polymeric solid supports or glass beads. A stable attachment can result from ionic binding, cross-linking and covalent linking to a water-insoluble matrix. A full description of chemical and/or physical procedures required to make enzymes insoluble is beyond the scope of this chapter and is extensively dealt with elsewhere.112 113... 

For detailed dynamics description and analysis of the continuum theory of ionic polymeric gel the reader is referred to Segalman, Witkowski, Adolf and Shahinpoor. Since polyelectrolytes are for the most part three dimensional network of macromolecules cross-linked nonuniformly, the concentration of ionic charge groups are also nonuniform within the polymer matrix. Therefore the mechanism of swelling and contraction are intimately related to osmotic diffiision of solvent, ions and counterions into and out of the gel. One possible way to describe this mechanism is to model the system by the governing continuum mechanics equations and Neo-Hookean deformation theory. In the next section an analytical relation is presented as described by Segalman, Wi owski, Adolf and Shahinpoor. ... 

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