PHYSICS OF POLYMER GELS (Hardcover)

PART I. Theories SINGLE POLYMER CHAIN General Features Statistics of a Single Polymer Chain Scaling of a Single Polymer Chain POLYMER SOLUTION Polymer Chains in Solution Effect of Polymer Concentration on Chain Conformation Osmotic Pressure of a Polymer Solution DEFINITION OF POLYMER GEL AND RUBBER ELASTICITY Definition of Polymer Gels Mesh Size of a Polymer Gel Elastic Modulus Network Strands and Crosslinks Topological Interaction Sol-Gel Transition Heterogeneity of Polymer Gels SWELLING AND DESWELLING Change in the Elastic Modulus due to Swelling/Deswelling Equilibrium Swelling Volume Phase Transition Swelling/Deswelling Kinetics Degradation of Polymer Gels DEFORMATION AND FRACTURE Description of Deformation Phenomenological Description of the Strain Energy Density Function Molecular Models for the Strain Energy Density Function Scaling for Large Deformation Fracture Behavior of Polymer Gels Mesh Size Estimated from Elastic Modulus and Fine Extensibility MASS TRANSPORT IN POLYMER GEL Thermal Motion and Brownian Motion Diffusion in Dilute Polymer Solutions Diffusion in Semi-Dilute Polymer Solutions and Polymer Gels PART II. Experiments TETRA GEL AS A NEAR-IDEAL POLYMER NETWORK Ideal Polymer Network Tetra-PEG Gel Structure Tuning of Tetra-PEG Gels SOL-GEL TRANSITION Determination of Sol-Gel Transition by Rheometry Phase Diagram Fractal Dimension at the Critical Point Reaction Kinetics of a Gelling System STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS BY LIGHT AND NEUTRON SCATTERING Scattering Curves of Tetra-PEG Gels Scattering Curves of Stretched Tetra-PEG Gels ELASTIC MODULUS Effect of Connectivity Effect of Polymer Concentration and Network Strand Length LARGE DEFORMATION Estimation of Strain Energy Density Function Cross Coupling Stretchability in Uniaxial Stretching FRACTURE Estimation of Fracture Energy Conversion-Tuned Tetra-PEG Gels Effects of Network Concentration and Strand Length Bimodal Tetra-PEG Gels Summary MASS TRANSPORT Diffusion of Water Molecules Migration of Water Molecules in Hydrogels Electro-Osmotic Flow in Electrically Charged Gels Migration of Small Double Stranded DNAs Migration of Large Double Stranded DNAs OSMOTIC PRESSURE Osmotic Pressure of Gels and Prepolymer Solutions Change in Osmotic Pressure during Gelation c Theorem at Gelation Threshold SWELLING Elastic Modulus of Swollen and Highly Deswollen Gels Equilibrium Swelling Swelling Kinetics DEGRADATION Cleavage of Specific Site Cleavage of Non-Specific Site CONTROL OVER SWELLING OF INJECTABLE GEL Nonswellable Gels Non-Osmotic Gel Oligo-TetraPEG Gel