Hydrogel matrix

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Effects of Particle-Hydrogel Interactions on
Hydrogel Stiffness Valeria Tohver Milam School of
Materials Science Engineering and Dept of
Biomedical Engineering Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, GA
Hydrogel matrix
Embedded colloids as interactive filler
Our goal is to generate hydrogels with tunable
mechanical properties. We have studied the
effects of hydrogel composition, volume fraction
as well as the effects of adding cationic and
anionic polystyrene lattices and carbon nanotubes
on the shear elastic modulus of hydrogels. We
have found that a shear modulus range of
0.05-7x104 Pa through hydrogel composition and
volume fraction effects alone.
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Inert or slightly repulsive
Electrostatically attractive particle-hydrogel
interface particle-hydrogel interface