3.6 Drying Kinetics Analysis
Figure 4D shows the time-dependent drying kinetics of the prepared
SA/Gel and A-SA-Gel hydrogel samples in the form of the
(Wm - Wt ) /
(Wm - Wo ) curves versus
time, at drying temperature of 37°C. The drying curves showed that the
drying ratio of all of groups increased with the increase of time, and
become to steady state after 130 min. The drying ratio of the SA/Gel
sample was faster than that of the A-SA-Gel sample. For example, the
fraction of water removed from the SA/Gel sample during the first 15 min
of drying period was 35.22%, while this fraction for the A-SA-Gel
sample was 26.06%.