(327b) Cavitation Rheology and Fracture Behavior of Polyacrylamide Hydrogels

The mechanical properties of gels present qualitatively contradictory behavior; they are commonly soft but also notoriously brittle. We investigate the elasticity and fracture behavior of swollen polymer networks using a simple experimental method to induce cavitation within a gel and adapt scaling theories to capture the observed transition from reversible to irreversible deformations as a function of polymer volume fraction. We have considered polyacrylamide hydrogel materials, a common material used in many biological applications. Gels with different moduli, which were obtained by varying initial monomer to water ratio, were investigated. It is shown quantitatively that the transition from reversible cavitation to irreversible fracture depends on the polymer volume fraction and an initial defect length scale. The use of cavitation experiments permits characterization of network properties across length scales ranging from µm to mm. We anticipate this fundamental understanding of cavitation and fracture mechanism will be applicable to the design of materials for engineering biological tissues, as well as the development of advanced soft materials.