Paper Number
PO95 

Session
Poster Session

Title
Tunable rheology of mixed hydrogels with different interactions

Presentation Date and Time
October 23, 2019 (Wednesday) 6:30

Track / Room
Poster Session / Ballroom C on 4th floor

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

1. Bantawa, Minaspi (Georgetown University, Department of Physics)
2. Vereroudakis, Emmanouil (FORTH-IESL)
3. Parisi, Daniele (Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser)
4. Lafleur, René P. (Eindhoven University of Technology, Institute for Complex Molecular Systems)
5. Del Gado, Emanuela (Georgetown University, Department of Physics)
6. Meijer, E.W. (Eindhoven University of Technology, Institute for Complex Molecular Systems)
7. Vlassopoulos, Dimitris (FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Minaspi Bantawa¹, Emmanouil Vereroudakis², Daniele Parisi², René P. Lafleur³, Emanuela Del Gado¹, E.W. Meijer³, and Dimitris Vlassopoulos^2
1Department of Physics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20007; ²Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser, FORTH, Heraklion 70013, Greece; ³Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Speaker / Presenter 
Bantawa, Minaspi

Text of Abstract
Hydrogels with tunable mechanical response and physiological properties have potential for biomedical, environmental and engineering applications. The challenge is to synthesize materials with high water uptake without sacrificing the strength and resilience of the network along with dynamic physical interactions that promote processability and self-healing. We have focused on the unusual rheological properties of a class of hydrogels made of fibrillar supramolecular assemblies based on hydrogen-bonding units, which form physical networks akin to entangled polymers, and gel-like structures made of telechelic moeties, which exhibit different mechanical response. We find that, by mixing these distinct moeties in different compositions, a non-monotonic, non-additive mechanical response is obtained, suggesting additional interactions between the two components that enable fine tuning of the performance of the composite material. We analyze the gel rheology using a combination of experiments (rheology and microscopy) and numerical simulations. The simulations comprise networks made of two building units with different interaction strengths and capture the non-monotonicity of the mechanical properties, providing new insight into the possible mechanisms underpinning the tunability of the hydrogel response.