Swelling/deswelling mechanism of calcium alginate gel in aqueous solutions.

To elucidate the mechanism of dimensional changes in alginate impression in solutions, the relationship between the ion concentrations in three types of solutions (nonelectrolyte and monovalent and divalent metallic salts) and change in gel volume was examined. The gel in the monovalent metallic salt solution expanded and a decrease in monovalent cation and an increase in Ca2+ were observed. This suggests that the crosslinking density of the gel reduced due to dissociation of Ca2+ from the calcium alginate gel. In divalent metallic salt solutions, the shrinkage occurred according to crosslinking of unreacted residue. In the nonelectrolytic solution, gel, neither ethylene glycol nor acetonitrile showed any volume changes, while that in glutaraldehyde contracted. It is speculated that the former two solutions were affected by the fact that the gel has no semipermeability, and that the latter result was due to chemical interaction between the gel and solution.