Tailoring Bulk Transport in Hydrogels through Control of Polydispersity in the Nanoscale Pore Size Distribution Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • A study was conducted to demonstrate an approach of tailoring bulk transport in hydrogels through control of polydispersity in the nanoscale pore size distribution. The approach combined complementary information from in situ dynamic mechanical analysis, thermoporometry, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in a way that enables both the mean pore size and the pore size distribution, to be quantitatively characterized. The study also demonstrated that the approach can be significantly effective by employing multiple techniques with different physical characteristics. It was found that a large number of individual pores need to be scanned and a favorable combination of investigation parameters need to be identified for the successful application of the method. The approach used in the study involved sample preparation, based critical point drying with hexamethyldisilazene (HMDS), which allowed water to be gently displaced under ambient condition.

published proceedings

  • ADVANCED MATERIALS

author list (cited authors)

  • Wang, J., Gonzalez, A. D., & Ugaz, V. M.

citation count

  • 28

complete list of authors

  • Wang, Jian||Gonzalez, Angel D||Ugaz, Victor M

publication date

  • December 2008

publisher