Paper Number
DA5 

Session
Design of Applied Materials

Title
Deciphering the adhesive properties of mussel-inspired metal-coordinate physical gels

Presentation Date and Time
October 16, 2018 (Tuesday) 11:30

Track / Room
Track 5 / San Felipe Room

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

1. Lai, Erica (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Materials Science and Engineering)
2. Keshavarz, Bavand (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering)
3. Holten-Andersen, Niels (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Materials Science and Engineering)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Erica Lai¹, Bavand Keshavarz², and Niels Holten-Andersen^1
1Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; ²Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

Speaker / Presenter 
Lai, Erica

Text of Abstract
In recent years, researchers have incorporated mussel-inspired metal coordination into various types of gels to improve their mechanical properties, particularly toughness and self-healing. However, not much is understood about how known methods for tuning the viscoelastic spectrum of these gels affect their adhesive properties. In this study, both rheological and tack tests are performed on metal-coordinate physical gels comprised of 4-arm polyethylene glycol end-functionalized with histidine (His) and divalent metal ions (M²⁺). Understanding how the ligands participate in each of the His_nM²⁺ species within a gel helps us determine the correlations between linear mechanical properties (i.e. plateau modulus, characteristic relaxation time) and resulting non-linear behavior (i.e. peak stress, adhesion energy). With this understanding, incorporating metal coordination into adhesive materials could provide condition-dependent control of adhesive properties.