Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T10:44:49.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Correlation between Mechanical Properties and Structure in Polymer Gels with Controlled Network Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2014

Takamasa Sakai ,
Yuki Akagi  and
Ung-il Chung
Takamasa Sakai
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN
Yuki Akagi
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN
Ung-il Chung
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN
Get access

Abstract

Elastmeric materials are of great importance in both academic and industrial field due to the soft and highly stretchable properties. Thus, many theories and models are proposed to correlate the physical properties and structural parameters. However, in general, it is difficult to validate these models experimentally. Thus, to this day, we do not know the requirement conditions for each model or even the validity of each model. The validation of these models has been inhibited by the inherent heterogeneity of polymer networks.

Recently, we, for the first time, succeeded in fabricating polymer network with extremely suppressed heterogeneity with a novel molecular design of prepolymers. The homogeneous polymer network, called Tetra-PEG gel, is prepared by AB-type crosslink-coupling of mutually reactive tetra-arm prepolymers. In this study, we examined the models of elastic modulus and fracture energy using Tetra-PEG gel as a model system. We controlled the structural parameters with tuning the molecular weight and concentration of prepolymers, and reaction conversion of the reaction. This series of controlled network structures, for the first time, enabled us to quantitatively examine these models. We performed the stretching and tearing measurements for these polymer gels. As for the elastic modulus, we observed the shift of the models from the phantom to affine network models around the overlapping concentration of prepolymers. As for the fracture energy, we confirmed the validity of the Lake-Thomas model, which is the most popular model predicting fracture energies of elastomers.

Keywords

polymerfractureelastic properties
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1622: Symposium E – Fundamentals of Gels and Self-Assembled Polymer Systems , 2014 , pp. 7 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Rubinstein, M. and Colby, R. H., Polymer Physics. (Oxford University Press, New York, 2003).Google Scholar
Shibayama, M., Macromol Chem Physic 199(1), 1–30 (1998).3.0.CO;2-M>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sakai, T., Matsunaga, T., Yamamoto, Y., Ito, C., Yoshida, R., Suzuki, S., Sasaki, N., Shibayama, M. and Chung, U. I., Macromolecules 41(14), 5379–5384 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsunaga, T., Sakai, T., Akagi, Y., Chung, U. and Shibayama, M., Macromolecules 42(4), 1344–1351 (2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsunaga, T., Sakai, T., Akagi, Y., Chung, U. I. and Shibayama, M., Macromolecules 42(16), 6245–6252 (2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, F., Schwenke, K., Kurakazu, M., Akagi, Y., Chung, U. I., Lane, M., Sommer, J. U., Sakai, T. and Saalwachter, K., Macromolecules 44(24), 9666–9674 (2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akagi, Y., Sakurai, H., Gong, J. P., Chung, U. and Sakai, T., J Chem Phys 139(14) (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akagi, Y., Gong, J. P., Chung, U. and Sakai, T., Macromolecules 46(3), 1035–1040 (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. R. and Macosko, C. W., Macromolecules 9(2), 206–211 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flory, P. J., Principles of Polymer Chemistry. (Cornell University Press, ITHACA and LONDON, 1953).Google Scholar
James, H. M. and Guth, E., J Chem Phys 21(6), 1039–1049 (1953).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flory, P. J., J Chem Phys 66(12), 5720–5729 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, G. J. and Thomas, A. G., Proc R Soc Lon Ser-A 300 (1460), 108-& (1967).Google Scholar
Landau, L. D., Lifshitz, E. M., Kosevich, A. M. and Pitaevskii, L. P., Theory of elasticity, 3rd English ed. (Pergamon Press, Oxford Oxfordshire ; New York, 1986).Google Scholar
Katashima, T., Urayama, K., Chung, U. I. and Sakai, T., Soft Matter 8(31), 8217–8222 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasiliev, V. G., Rogovina, L. Z. and Slonimsky, G. L., Polymer 26(11), 1667–1676 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferry, J. D., Viscoelastic properties of polymers. (John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1980).Google Scholar
Kienberger, Ferry, Pastushenko, Vassili Ph., Kada, Gerald, Gruber, Hermann J., Riener, Christian, Schindler, H. and Hinterdorfer, P., Single Molecules 1(2), 123–128 (2000).3.0.CO;2-3>CrossRefGoogle Scholar