Osmotic swelling

Key Words polymer gel, swelling, osmotic pressure, elastic modulus, small-angle neutron scattering... 

Microreticular Resins. Microreticular resins, by contrast, are elastic gels that, in the dry state, avidly absorb water and other polar solvents in which they are immersed. While taking up solvent, the gel structure expands until the retractile stresses of the distended polymer network balance the osmotic effect. In nonpolar solvents, little or no swelling occurs and diffusion is impaired. 

Addition of a salt can transform the shale by cation exchange to a less sensitive form of clay, or reduce the osmotic swelling effect by reducing the water activity in the mud below that which occurs in the shale. These effects depend on the salt concentration and the nature of the cation. Salts containing sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and ammonium ions ate used to varying degrees. 

Calcium sources, such as gypsum and lime, promote cation exchange from sodium clay to a less-sweUing calcium clay. Calcium concentrations ate normally low (<1000 mg/L) and osmotic swelling is only reduced if other salts are present. Calcium chloride has been used infrequently for this purpose but systems are available that allow high calcium chloride levels to be carried in the mud system (98). 

Osmotic Pressure Controlled Oral Tablets. Alza Corp. has developed a system that is dependent on osmotic pressure developed within a tablet. The core of the tablet is the water-soluble dmg encapsulated in a hydrophobic, semipermeable membrane. Water enters the tablet through the membrane and dissolves the dmg creating a greater osmotic pressure within the tablet. The dmg solution exits at a zero-order rate through a laser drilled hole in the membrane. Should the dmg itself be unable to provide sufficient osmotic pressure to create the necessary pressure gradient, other water-soluble salts or a layer of polymer can be added to the dmg layer. The polymer swells and pushes the dmg solution through the orifice in what is known as a push-pull system (Fig. 3). The exhausted dmg unit then passes out of the body in fecal matter. 

Magnesium oxide is a typical acid scavenger for chlorinated mbbers. Compounds containing zinc oxide or magnesium oxide may tend to swell upon immersion in water. These inorganic salts have some water solubiHty and osmotic pressure causes the vulcanizates to imbibe water to equalize pressure (8,9). As such, vulcanizates tend to sweU more in fresh (distilled) water than in salt water. To minimize water sweU, insoluble salts such as lead oxides can be substituted. Because of the health concerns associated with lead, there is much mbber industry interest in other acid acceptors, such as synthetic... 

Exxon products appear to release via a unique mechanism. Like other polymer-coated technologies, the penetration of water iato the granule is purely by diffusion. However, as water enters the particle, an osmotic pressure is created as the fertilizer is solubilized. This pressure causes an expansion of the elastomeric coating and the particle swells to many times its original diameter. As the particle swells, the coating becomes increasingly thinner to the point where it caimot contain the internal pressure and the nutrient is released. 

VP = vapor pressure of solvent glc = ga.sliquidchromatography, SE = swelling equilibria Op = osmotic pressure. 

As already indicated, ion exchange resins are osmotic systems which swell owing to solvent being drawn into the resin. Where mixed solvent systems are used the possibility of preferential osmosis occurs and it has been shown that strongly acid cation and strongly basic anion resin phases tend to be predominantly aqueous with the ambient solution predominantly organic. This effect (preferential water sorption by the resin) increases as the dielectric constant of the organic solvent decreases. 

Direct mechanical methods can be used to determine the swelling pressure of hydrogels, e.g., by means of devices in the form of a cylindrical chamber equipped with a piston in which the gel contacts the solution through a porous membrane. This technique allows measuring very low pressure (of the order of 0.1-10 kPa) and makes it possible to analyze the SAH with swelling up to 700 ml g-1 [102, 103]. Among others, the method of osmotic deswelling is to be mentioned [104]. 

The only significant difference between the osmotic and mechanical forces is that the latter may not be isotropic as, for example, at the uniaxial swelling of the gel in a tube. 

Osmotic deswelling experiments, performed with a series of PAAm [20] and PVA [112] gels have revealed a correlation between their sensitivity to the external pressure and the equilibrium swelling degree in the absence of external forces. This fact is illustrated below ... 

The swelling pressure or osmotic deswelling data can be, therefore, described as the functions of n(w) by either of the theories [115]. This description can be then applied to determining the network parameters (see, for example, Ref. [22]). On the other hand, the swelling pressure which is directly connected with the chemical potential of water in the gel ... 

Cells are normally kept at osmotic (water activity) equilibrium by the action of the Na-pump. Inhibition of the pump with the specific Na -K -ATPase inhibitor, ouabain, causes cell swelling as does inhibition of it by hypothermia. The intracellular environment contains a high concentration of K (100 to 120 mM, in most mammalian cells), lower concentrations of Na (about 10 to 30 mM), and high... 

Initial work with poly (ortho esters) focused on norethindrone and the use of water-soluble excipients such as Na2C03, NaCl, and Na2S04 (27). As described by Fedors (28), the inclusion of such water-soluble salts leads to an osmotically driven water intake into the polymer. This water intake leads to polymer swelling with consequent release of the incorporated norethindrone. The effect of incorporated NaCl and Na2C03 on erosion rate as compared to the... 

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