Yanagawa F, Onuki Y, Morishita M, Takayama K. Involvement of fractal geometry on solute permeation through porous poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) membranes.
J Control Release 2006;
110:395-399. [PMID:
16332400 DOI:
10.1016/j.jconrel.2005.10.015]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2005] [Revised: 09/29/2005] [Accepted: 10/24/2005] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Fractal geometry was applied to quantify the complexity of an internal structure of porous membranes prepared with poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA). The porous pHEMA membranes were synthesized by means of free-radical solution polymerization. Boundary lines of the porous structures in the pHEMA membrane were taken by a scanning electron microscope as image data, and these images were fed into a computer to estimate the fractal dimension. The boundary images of porous pHEMA membranes were observed to be a typical fractal and their complexity was quantified as a non-integral fractal dimension. The permeation of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran, molecular weight 4400 (FD-4) as a model penetrant through the porous pHEMA membrane was determined using water-jacket type two-chamber diffusion cells. A fairly good negative relationship between the permeability coefficient of FD-4 and the fractal dimension was observed, suggesting the usefulness of the fractal dimension as a novel means for evaluating solute permeation through the porous membranes.
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