Hydrogels mechanical properties

Liao, H. M., Munoz-Pinto, D., Qu, X. et al. 2008. Influence of hydrogel mechanical properties and mesh size on vocal fold fibroblast extracellular matrix production and phenotype. Acta Biomater 4 1161-71. 

Barrett DG, Eullenkamp DE, He L, Holten-Andersen N, Lee KYC, Messersmith PB (2013) pH-Based regulation of hydrogel mechanical properties through mussel-inspired chemistry and processing. Adv Eunct Mater 23 1111-1119... 

Haugh, M.G., Thorpe, S.D., Vinardell, T., Buckley, C.T., Kelly, D.J., 2012. The application of plastic compression to modulate fibrin hydrogel mechanical properties. Journal of Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials 16, 66-72. 

Mechanical properties of a hydrogel lens also are affected by the use of a hydrophobic monomer, such as a low alkyl methacrylate. This is particularly important when the water content of the hydrogel lens is very high. The use of these methacrylates helps preserve the required mechanical strength. Methyl methacrylate [80-62-6] (MMA) (I2I), isobutyl methacrylate [97-86-9] (122), and / -pentyl methacrylate [2849-98-1] (123) all have been used for this purpose. 

Blending of polymers provides a convenient way of combining the different properties of individual polymers. Hydrophilization of the silicone mbber can be obtained by blending silicone rubber with hydrogels. These kinds of composites combine the good mechanical properties with the hydrophilicity. 

Silicone rubber-hydrogel composite is a two-phase system that is capable of swelling in water. The hydrogels prepared have different chemical compositions, size and shape of particles, and correspondingly different specific surfaces. It was found that the mechanical properties of silicone rubber-hydrogel composites depend mostly on the magnitude of the contact surface of both phases. ... 

Tse JR, Engler AJ (2010) Preparation of hydrogel substrates with tunable mechanical properties. In Bonifacino JS (ed) Current protocols in cell biology. Wiley, Somerset... 

Jung JP, Jones JL, Cronier SA et al (2008) Modulating the mechanical properties of self-assembled peptide hydrogels via native chemical ligation. Biomaterials 29 2143-2151... 

Anseth et al. [20] have reviewed the literature dealing with the mechanical properties of hydrogels and have considered in detail the effects of gel molecular structure, e.g., cross-linking, on bulk mechanical properties using theories of rubber elasticity and viscoelasticity. 

Anseth, KS Bowman, CN Brannon-Peppas, L, Mechanical Properties of Hydrogels and Their Experimental Determination, Biomaterials 17, 1647,1996. 

L Westman, T Lindstrom. Swelling and mechanical properties of cellulose hydrogels. IV. Kinetics of swelling in liquid water. J Appl Polym Sci 26 2561-2572, 1981. 

Schiraldi et al. [64] have developed this kind of material by combining silica particles and pHEMA. pHEMA is a biocompatible hydrogel that has been widely studied in the past decades due to its chemical-physical structure and mechanical properties. It has been widely used in ophthalmic prostheses (contact or intraocular lenses), vascular prostheses, drug delivery systems and soft-tissue replacement [65]. These authors have shown that by incorporating silica nanoparticles, the resulting hybrid material is highly biocompatible and promotes bone cell adhesion and proliferation of bone cells seeded on it.1 ... 

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