Ortega Fuentes, Carlos M.

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    Electrical studies of methacrylic acid hydrogels molecularly imprinted with hydrocortisone
    (2008) Ortega Fuentes, Carlos M.; Juan García, Eduardo J.; College of Engineering; Rosado Román, José; Beauchamp Báez, Gerson; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Torres Lugo, Madeline
    Electrical studies of cross-linked methacrylic acid hydrogels molecularly imprinted with hydrocortisone were conducted by means of electrical resistivity estimates. A factorial experimental design method was followed to investigate the effect of several factors (hydrogel morphologies, solution pH, hydrocortisone concentration and signal frequency) and interactions between them in the electrical resistance of the hydrogels. It was possible to identify and sort by significance the factors that had the most effect in the electrical response of the hydrogels. Of the studied factors the solution pH had the most significant effect on the electrical response of hydrogels while frequency was the least significant. In average, the response of every combination tested at saturation levels of hydrocortisone concentration (0.24 mg/ml) for the molecularly imprinted group more than doubled the response of the non-imprinted group. Sensitivity and selectivity studies were performed with favorable outcomes at intermediate concentrations (0.12 mg/ml) of hydrocortisone in solution. Finally, this study presents a methodology which can be employed to characterize the electrical response of hydrogels that, when combined with statistical fundamentals, could aid in finding an optimum operating region for an application while reducing the number of testing iterations.