What it takes to be an environmental model

Understanding the release kinetics of compounds from complex polymeric matrices is important to medical, agricultural and environmental sciences. Some sophisticated models exist for predicting release kinetics for well-defined medical and agricultural formulations. Soils, however, are variable and difficult to understand at a mechanistic level. Mona Wells and her team, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), use model polymer release systems with release kinetics that mimic soils to critically analyse the mathematical models used by environmental scientists.

Wells says their results show that care must be exercised when interpreting model output for more complex systems. The team hopes to see the development of a type of correspondence principle in which complex environmental matrices such as soils represent one end of a materials continuum and medical or agricultural formulations the other. They hope this will result in more environmentally-friendly materials release systems.