Issue 40, 2022

Quantifying the trade-off between stiffness and permeability in hydrogels

Abstract

Hydrogels have a distinct combination of mechanical and water-transport behaviors. As hydrogels stiffen when they de-swell, they become less permeable. Here, we combine de Gennes' semi-dilute polymer theory with the Kozeny-Carman equation to develop a simple, succinct scaling law describing the relationship between mechanical stiffness and hydraulic permeability where permeability scales with stiffness to the −8/9 power. We find a remarkably close agreement between the scaling law and experimental results across four different polymer families with varied crosslinkings. This inverse relationship establishes a fundamental trade-off between permeability and stiffness.

Graphical abstract: Quantifying the trade-off between stiffness and permeability in hydrogels

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
08 sen 2022
Accepted
26 sen 2022
First published
27 sen 2022

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 7735-7740

Quantifying the trade-off between stiffness and permeability in hydrogels

Y. Gao and H. J. Cho, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 7735 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM01215D

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