What are the properties of polyacrylamide hydrogels?

Polyacrylamide (PAA) hydrogels have several interesting physico-chemical properties that are useful for protein and cell micropatterning. They are optically transparent, low cost, and chemically simple compounds that can be used in almost any lab.

Is a polyacrylamide hydrogel a soft material?

Just as silica has long served as a model hard material (Griffith, 1921), we now use a polyacrylamide hydrogel as a model soft material. Both materials are highly elastic prior to rupture, but some differences are puzzling.

What is the molar ratio of a polyacrylamide hydrogel?

A polyacrylamide hydrogel consists of a covalent polymer network and water. The molar ratio of the monomer to the crosslinker ranges from 10 to 10 4. The volume fraction of water varies from 70% to 90%. Under ordinary conditions, the polyacrylamide network is stable, and water is mobile in the polymer network.

Are polyacrylamide-based hydrogels conductive?

According to the above reported findings, poly (2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid) and polyacrylamide-based hydrogels demonstrated efficient electrical conductive properties enabling their application in the manufacture of many electronics [ 25 ], bio electrodes [ 26 ], and muscle actuators [ 27 ].

Does a polyacrylamide hydrogel map network imperfection to mechanical properties?

For a polyacrylamide hydrogel, we have shown that experimental measurements map network imperfection to mechanical properties.

Do polyacrylamide hydrogels suffer crack growth under cyclic load?

Tang et al. (2017) discovered that polyacrylamide hydrogels suffer crack growth under cyclic load when the energy release rate is much below the toughness, but is above a threshold. The measured threshold is comparable to the Lake-Thomas prediction.