Poroelastic swelling kinetics of thin hydrogel layers: comparison of theory and experiment
- 24 September 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Soft Matter
- Vol. 6 (23), 6004-6012
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c0sm00434k
Abstract
Thin poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogels were allowed to swell under two conditions: as freestanding layers and as substrate-attached layers. Through a combination of particle tracking and defocusing methods, the positions of beads embedded within the gels were monitored over time via fluorescence microscopy, providing a convenient method to track the kinetics of swelling for layers with thicknesses of the order 100 µm. These data are compared with the predictions of linear poroelastic theory, as specialized for polymer gels. This theory, along with a single set of material properties, accurately describes the observed swelling kinetics for both the freestanding and substrate-attached hydrogels. With the additional measurement of the substrate curvature induced by the swelling of the substrate-attached hydrogels, these experiments provide a simple route to completely characterize the material properties of the gel within the framework of linear poroelasticity, using only an optical microscope.Keywords
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Force generated by a swelling elastomer subject to constraintJournal of Applied Physics, 2010
- Hydrogels for Soft MachinesAdvanced Materials, 2009
- Review on Hydrogel-based pH Sensors and MicrosensorsSensors, 2008
- Modeling of multiphase smart hydrogels responding to pH and electric voltage coupled stimuliJournal of Applied Physics, 2007
- Hydrogels in Biology and Medicine: From Molecular Principles to BionanotechnologyAdvanced Materials, 2006
- Hydrogels for Musculoskeletal Tissue EngineeringPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2006
- Chemically induced swelling of hydrogelsJournal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2003
- The dawning era of polymer therapeuticsNature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2003
- Hydrogels for Tissue EngineeringChemical Reviews, 2001
- Nonlinear swelling of polymer gelsThe Journal of Chemical Physics, 1993