What is a hydrogel?
Hydrogels are polymer networks that swell in water. Their biomedical applications depend on the control of three major physical properties of hydrogels. Click to learn more about each property:
Design application-ready hydrogels
The Swollen Polymer Network Model
The swollen polymer network model uses a fundamental structure-to-function approach to predict how hydrogel synthesis conditions will affect swelling, stiffness, and solute transport.
Rubberlike Elasticity
Rubberlike Elasticity Theory uses hyperelastic modeling to predict hydrogel stiffnesses.
Equilibrium Swelling
Equilibrium Swelling Theory uses chemical potential balances to predict hydrogel swelling.
Mesh Transport
Mesh Transport Theory coordinates solute diffusion models within hydrogels.
Advantages to Using Hydrogel Design
- Reduce trial-and-error experiments to get the right hydrogel
- Facilitates fundamental, equation-driven hypothesis testing
- Control multiple hydrogel properties simultaneously
- Universal structural parameters are not specific to a single polymer
- Mathematical modeling helps to make sense of large datasets
- Benefit from a growing dataset of standardized hydrogel experiments