Poroelasticity of highly confined hydrogel films measured with a surface forces apparatus

George D Degen; Yen-Tsung Chen; Allison L Chau; Lisa K Månsson; Angela A Pitenis

doi:10.1039/d0sm01312a

Poroelasticity of highly confined hydrogel films measured with a surface forces apparatus

Soft Matter. 2020 Sep 16;16(35):8096-8100. doi: 10.1039/d0sm01312a.

Authors

George D Degen¹, Yen-Tsung Chen¹, Allison L Chau², Lisa K Månsson³, Angela A Pitenis²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. gdegen@ucsb.edu.
² Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
³ Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.

PMID: 32935726
DOI: 10.1039/d0sm01312a

Abstract

The influence of poroelasticity on the contact mechanics of thin polyacrylamide films was investigated with a surface forces apparatus (SFA). A model based on a thin film approximation described compression forces for hydrated gels; polymer scaling theory explained the effects of gel dehydration. The results demonstrate that fluid flow dictates the apparent stiffness of highly confined poroelastic films.