Project Details
Projekt
Generation of anisotropic hydrogel membranes, mimicking plant cell wall structures, and exploration of new bio-inspired mechanical devices based on gel swelling.
Subject Area
Experimental and Theoretical Physics of Polymers
Term
from 2007 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 36780046
Due to the stimuli-response swelling behaviour and excellent bio compatibility, hydrogels hold immense promise in biological applications, especially in tissue engineering such as artificial muscles and scaffolds. Nonetheless, the conventionally accessible hydrogels are fairly soft, showing poor mechanical behaviour. The increase of the stiffness of hydrogels, for instance by cross-linking of the gel network, is always associated with a deterioration of swelling properties. The present project is devoted to the fabrication of anisotropic hydrogel membranes, inspired by natural plant cell walls with sufficiently high stiffness and capable of generating high stresses via a stimuli-responsive swelling behaviour. In this project, ordered arrays of coaxially-multilayered composite stiff nanofibres, constructed by using nanoporous alumina membranes as templates, will be embedded within hydrogel membranes, made from the extracts of the plant cell walls. In terms of their structure, the resulting composite hydrogel membranes should be reminiscent of the plant cell walls. Their structural anisotropy and their swelling behaviour will be investigated mainly by means of X-ray and neutron reflection. Uni-axial and bi-axial tests will be used to analyze the mechanical performance of the resulting anisotropic hydrogel membranes as a function of the orientation of embedded nanofibers. This may provide a deeper insight into the mechanical behaviour of plant cell walls. The potential of use of the resulting anisotropic hydrogel membranes as actuators will be demonstrated.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
