Engineering gelation in metal ion cross-linked hydrogels

Inspired by their role in the extraordinary mechanical properties of aquatic mussel threads, reversible metal ion cross-links have been utilized to engineer the toughness, stress relaxation, and healing ability of polymer hydrogel networks. Such transient network hydrogels are easily made by reversibly cross-linking a growing variety of polymers modified with ligands capable of binding metal ions in dynamic coordination complexes, and researchers by now have developed a range of orthogonal strategies to tune the viscoelastic properties of these metal ion cross-linked hydrogels. However, several critical challenges have slowed the further development of these materials. Like any two-component cross-linked network, metal ion cross-linked hydrogels are limited by a reliance on strict stoichiometric balance between the metal and ligand to achieve full network connectivity, or percolation, and robust mechanical properties.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Cazzell, Seth Allen.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Niels Holten-Andersen.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

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/1721.1/130204

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130204