Hydrogel mesh size evaluation

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, attention will be focused on rheology, low-field NMR, crioporosimetry, and release tests.