Ideal reversible polymer networks : theory and applications

Hydrogels are crosslinked polymer networks with high water contents that can be designed to have similar properties as native tissue. Due to the tunability and unique properties of this class of materials, they are considered ideal biomaterials and have been explored for a variety of tissue engineering and biomedical applications. The widespread adoption of these materials outside research lab settings, however, has been hampered by multiple technical and non-technical limitations. We have addressed two of the technical limitations identified: Poor mechanical robustness and integration with non-hydrogel surfaces, and the lack of quantitative predictions of the hydrogel properties (based on the hydrogel's composition and structure). In this thesis we introduce a set of tough materials based on an interpenetrating network hydrogel architecture, and several strategies used to robustly adhere these materials to inorganic and elastomeric substrates.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Parada Hernandez, Germán Alberto.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Xuanhe Zhao.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123727

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123727