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Full-Text Articles in Materials Science and Engineering
Swelling Induced Deformation Of Thermally Responsive Hydrogels, Ying Zhou
Swelling Induced Deformation Of Thermally Responsive Hydrogels, Ying Zhou
Doctoral Dissertations
Hydrogels are crosslinked polymeric networks imbibed with aqueous solutions. They undertake dramatic volume changes through swelling and deswelling processes, which can be stimulated by factors like temperature, pH or different chemicals. These unique properties render hydrogels particularly interesting for shape morphing related applications. In this thesis, we focus on the swelling induced deformation of thermally responsive hydrogels with lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs), including poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) and poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) (PDEAm). Particularly, benzophenone containing monomers are copolymerized with NIPAm or DEAm to create photocrosslinkable temperature-responsive polymers, which allows fabrication of hydrogels with controlled shapes and crosslinking …
Dynamics And Structure Of Polyelectrolyte Complexes, Hamidreza Shojaei-Mahib
Dynamics And Structure Of Polyelectrolyte Complexes, Hamidreza Shojaei-Mahib
Doctoral Dissertations
Interaction of charged macromolecules among themselves and with charged interfaces in salty aqueous medium is a common phenomenon prevalent in biology and synthetic systems. We have addressed several inter-related issues in this general context. First we present a theory of adsorption of polyelectrolytes on the interior and exterior surfaces of a charged spherical vesicle. We derive the critical adsorption condition and the density profile of the polymer in terms of various characteristics of the polymer, vesicle, and the solution, such as the length and charge density of polymer, the radius and charge of the vesicle, the salt concentration of the …
Self-Assembling Networks In Soft Materials, Ishan Prasad
Self-Assembling Networks In Soft Materials, Ishan Prasad
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation presents a study on heterogeneous network structure in two distinct classes of soft material systems: disordered assemblies of jammed binary spheres and ordered morphologies of block copolymer melts. The aim is to investigate the combined role of geometry and entropy in structure formation of soft matter assemblies. First, we investigate the influence of particle size asymmetry on structural properties of jammed binary sphere mixtures. We give evidence of two distinct classes of materials separated by a critical size ratio that marks the onset of a sharp transition due to simultaneous jamming of a sub-component of the packing. We …