Issue 20, 2009
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Cavitation and fracture behavior of polyacrylamide hydrogels

Santanu Kundu†a  and  Alfred J. Crosby*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
E-mail: santanuk@mail.pse.umass.edu, crosby@mail.pse.umass.edu
Fax: +1 413 545-0082
Tel: +1 413 577-1313

Abstract

The mechanical properties of gels present qualitatively contradictory behavior; they are commonly soft but also notoriously brittle. We investigate the elasticity and fracture behavior of swollen polymer networks using a simple experimental method to induce cavitation within a gel and adapt scaling theories to capture the observed transition from reversible to irreversible deformations as a function of polymer volume fraction. It is shown quantitatively that the transition from reversible cavitation to irreversible fracture depends on the polymer volume fraction and an initial defect length scale. The use of cavitation experiments permits characterization of network properties across length scales ranging from µm to mm. We anticipate that these results may significantly enhance the understanding of mechanical properties of soft materials, both synthetic and biological.

Graphical abstract: Cavitation and fracture behavior of polyacrylamide hydrogels

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B909237D
Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 May 2009
Accepted
02 Jul 2009
First published
21 Jul 2009

Soft Matter, 2009,5, 3963-3968

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Cavitation and fracture behavior of polyacrylamide hydrogels

S. Kundu and A. J. Crosby, Soft Matter, 2009, 5, 3963 DOI: 10.1039/B909237D

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