(694a) Quantifying Gel Network Properties Via Poroelasticity (Invited Talk)

Due to their unique chemical and structural properties, polymer gels are employed in various membrane-based applications where selective transport is critical to device performance. Characterizing the chemical and structural properties of a gel is critical to understanding its transport behavior. However, quantifying these properties is nontrivial as it often requires multiple measurement techniques. In this talk, we demonstrate poroelastic relaxation indentation (PRI) as a single measurement tool to characterize the swelling, mechanical and transport properties of model poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogel systems. By applying the appropriate thermodynamic polymer network models and the linear theory of poroelasticity, we are able to use the results from PRI to extract the thermodynamic parameters, elastic modulus, water permeability and mesh size of these gels. We validate these results with small angle neutron scattering to illustrate the simplicity of the PRI measurement technique.