On the other hand, the insoluble cross-linked hydrogel network enables dewatering under the influence of external (thermal and/or mechanical) stimuli.  Moreover, from a thermodynamic perspective, a polyelectrolyte hydrogel is already an osmotic membrane.  Employing a coarse-grained model and the Gibbs ensemble, we modeled the thermodynamic equilibrium between the coexisting gel phase and the supernate aqueous salt solution phase. 
THERM