ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

Critical behaviour in the nonlinear elastic response of hydrogels

133   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Matthew Dennison
 تاريخ النشر 2014
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

In this paper we study the elastic response of synthetic hydrogels to an applied shear stress. The hydrogels studied here have previously been shown to mimic the behaviour of biopolymer networks when they are sufficiently far above the gel point. We show that near the gel point they exhibit an elastic response that is consistent with the predicted critical behaviour of networks near or below the isostatic point of marginal stability. This point separates rigid and floppy states, distinguished by the presence or absence of finite linear elastic moduli. Recent theoretical work has also focused on the response of such networks to finite or large deformations, both near and below the isostatic point. Despite this interest, experimental evidence for the existence of criticality in such networks has been lacking. Using computer simulations, we identify critical signatures in the mechanical response of sub-isostatic networks as a function of applied shear stress. We also present experimental evidence consistent with these predictions. Furthermore, our results show the existence of two distinct critical regimes, one of which arises from the nonlinear stretch response of semi-flexible polymers..



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

102 - Y. C. Jian 2006
Taking into account the structural transition and long-range interaction (lattice effect), we resort to the Ewald-Kornfeld formulation and developed Maxwell-Garnett theory for uniaxially anisotropic suspensions to calculate the effective permeability of inverse ferrofluids. And we also consider the effect of volume fraction to the magnetophoretic force on the nonmagnetic spherical particles submerged in ferrofluids in the presence of nonuniform magnetic field. We find that the coupling of ac and dc field case can lead to fundamental and third harmonic response in the effective magnetophoresis and changing the aspect ratio in both prolate and oblate particles can alter the harmonic and nonharmonic response and cause the magnetophoretic force vanish.
67 - G.M. Buendia , S.J. Mitchell , 2002
We propose and study a simplified model for the surface and bulk structures of crosslinked polymer gels, into which voids are introduced through templating by surfactant micelles. Such systems were recently studied by Atomic Force Microscopy [M. Chak rapani et al., e-print cond-mat/0112255]. The gel is represented by a frustrated, triangular network of nodes connected by springs of random equilibrium lengths. The nodes represent crosslinkers, and the springs correspond to polymer chains. The boundaries are fixed at the bottom, free at the top, and periodic in the lateral direction. Voids are introduced by deleting a proportion of the nodes and their associated springs. The model is numerically relaxed to a representative local energy minimum, resulting in an inhomogeneous, ``clumpy bulk structure. The free top surface is defined at evenly spaced points in the lateral (x) direction by the height of the topmost spring, measured from the bottom layer, h(x). Its scaling properties are studied by calculating the root-mean-square surface width and the generalized increment correlation functions C_q(x)= <|h(x_0+x)-h(x_0)|^q>. The surface is found to have a nontrivial scaling behavior on small length scales, with a crossover to scale-independent behavior on large scales. As the vacancy concentration approaches the site-percolation limit, both the crossover length and the saturation value of the surface width diverge in a manner that appears to be proportional to the bulk connectivity length. This suggests that a percolation transition in the bulk also drives a similar divergence observed in surfactant templated polyacrylamide gels at high surfactant concentrations.
A key objective in DNA-based material science is understanding and precisely controlling the mechanical properties of DNA hydrogels. We perform microrheology measurements using diffusing-wave spectroscopy (DWS) to investigate the viscoelastic behavio r of a hydrogel made of Y-shaped DNA nano-stars over a wide range of frequencies and temperatures. Results show a clear liquid-to-equilibrium-gel transition as the temperature cycles up and down across the melting-temperature region for which the Y-DNA bind to each other. These first measurements reveal the crossover of the elastic G({omega}) and loss modulus G({omega}) when the DNA-hydrogel formed at low temperatures is heated to a fluid phase of DNA nano-stars well above the melt temperature Tm. We show that the crossover relates to the life-time of the DNA-bond and also that percolation coincides with the systems Tm. The approach demonstrated here can be easily extended to more complicated DNA hydrogel systems and provides guidance for the future design of such transient, semi-flexible networks that can be adapted to the application of molecular sensing and controlled release.
We extend the Cahn-Landau-de Gennes mean field theory of binary mixtures to understand the wetting thermodynamics of a three phase system, that is in contact with an external surface which prefers one of the phases. We model the system using a phenom enological free energy having three minima corresponding to low, intermediate and high density phases. By systematically varying the textit{(i)} depth of the central minimum, textit{(ii)} the surface interaction parameters, we explore the phase behavior, and wetting characteristics of the system across the triple point corresponding to three phase coexistence. We observe a non-monotonic dependence of the surface tension across the triple point that is associated with a complete to partial wetting transition. The methodology is then applied to study the wetting behaviour of a polymer-liquid crystal mixture in contact with a surface using a renormalised free energy. Our work provides a way to interrogate phase behavior and wetting transitions of biopolymers in cellular environments.
The angular-dependent critical current density, Jc(theta), and the upper critical field, Hc2(theta), of epitaxial Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 thin films have been investigated. No Jc(theta) peaks for H || c were observed regardless of temperatures and magnetic fields. In contrast, Jc(theta) showed a broad maximum at theta=90 degree, which arises from intrinsic pinning. All data except at theta=90 degree can be scaled by the Blatter plot. Hc2(theta) near Tc follows the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau expression. The mass anisotropy increased from 1.5 to 2 with increasing temperature, which is an evidence for multi-band superconductivity.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا