After three years of research between ECE and LLB, Cécile Rerzki-Vérité was able to present her thesis defense on Friday December 15 at 2pm. It is entitled ” Nouveaux hydrogels physiques ultra-déformables dopés de cubosomes décorés par des argiles ” and was co-supervised by Fabrice Cousin (LLB, CEA), François Muller (ECE) and Filippo Ferdeghini (ECE).
The defense took place in the EM009 amphitheater on the Eiffel 1 campus.
Summary of the work presented on this occasion.
Polymers are long molecular chains which, with the help of nodes called cross-linkers, can form elastic, water-swollen, three-dimensional nets called hydrogels. The aim of this thesis is to develop innovative hydrogels for the controlled delivery of active ingredients. Knots formed from lipids, phytantriol, could incorporate specific molecules to be released under deformation. Lipids spontaneously form nanometric droplets with internal cubic symmetry when dispersed in water by ultrasound. These hydrophobic drops are decorated with thin sheets of hydrophilic clay, Laponite, which prevent them from melting. Laponites can also form physical, reversible bonds with chains of polyacrylamide, a hydrophilic polymer, thus generating knots. In this way, lipid droplets can trap active ingredients and be robustly incorporated into an ultra-deformable polymer network.
Updated 2 January 2024