A chemo-electro-mechanical model for simulation of responsive deformation of glucose-sensitive hydrogels with the effect of enzyme catalysis

A multi-effect-coupling glucose-stimulus (MECglu) model is developed and solved numerically for the swelling behavior of soft smart hydrogels responding to changes in the environmental glucose concentration. The model considers the effect of the glucose oxidation reaction catalyzed by enzymes including glucose oxidase and catalase. It is composed of the Nernst–Planck equation for the mobile species in the solvent, the Poisson equation for the electric potential, and a nonlinear mechanical equation for the large deformations of the hydrogel that arise due to the conversion of chemical energy to mechanical. Based on the theory of the chemo-electro-mechanical-coupled fields, the formulation of the fixed charge groups bound onto the cross-linked polymer network is associated with the change of the ambient solution pH. The MECglu model is validated by comparison between the steady-state computation and experimental equilibrium swelling curves, and good agreement is obtained. A parameter study is then conducted by steady-state simulations to ascertain the impact of various solvent parameters on the responsive swelling behavior of the hydrogel. One key parameter is the glucose concentration, which is varied within the range of practical physiological glucose concentrations from 0 to 16.5 mM (300 mg/ml) to support the design and optimization of an insulin delivery system based on a glucose-sensitive hydrogel with immobilized glucose oxidase and catalase. The influence of oxygen and glucose concentrations in the solvent is then further studied for the distributive profiles of reacting and diffusive species concentrations, the electric potential, the displacement, as well as the swelling ratio of the glucose-sensitive hydrogel.