Mechanics of Composite Hydrogels

Composite hydrogels – which consist of fillers in a swollen polymeric matrix – are ubiquitous structural components of biological materials, biomedical devices, food, and consumer products. The mechanical properties of composite hydrogels are pivotal for their respective applications, and are governed by physical processes which remain unexplored. This thesis explores the physical processes that underlie (i) structure formation in composite hydrogels, viewed from the perspective of the self-assembly of patchy particles; (ii) linear viscoelastic stress relaxation in composite hydrogels, as a manifestation of athermal relaxation dynamics; (iii) nonlinear compression stiffening in composite hydrogels, arising from complex particle dynamics that arise during compression; and (iv) design methods for composite hydrogels, as functional materials with programmable morphologies and stimuli-responsivity. These results provide a framework for understanding the mechanics of composite hydrogels in nature and technology.

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

2023

Author dc:creator

• Song, Jake

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• McKinley, Gareth H.

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/152007

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/152007