ABSTRACT

The importance of hydrogels in the biomedical and biotechnological

fields induced researchers to experimentally and theoretically

study their properties. Among them, one of the most important

is represented by the mesh size distribution of their polymeric

network. Indeed, this characteristic heavily rules the mass exchange

processes between the hydrogel and the surrounding. The aim of

this chapter is to present and discuss some techniques devoted to

the estimation of the polymeric network mesh size. In particular, at-

tention will be focused on rheology, low-field NMR, crioporosimetry,

and release tests.