Hydrogels

Materials Science Research Group

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Overview

This area of research involves collaboration with experimentalists to measure the surface scaling properties (self-affine or fractal behavior) of the surface of hydrogels. The gel is cast between two glass plates, it is polymerized, the top plate is removed, and the surface of the gel is observed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). A variety of statistical quantities are measured, including the height-height correlation function and the surface rms width as a function of length scale.

Collaboration Includes:

Per Arne Rikvold

David Van Winkle

Papers

To the right are links to images, animations, and other resources which are intended to augment the following papers.

No papers yet published.

Additional Resources

Note: MPEG files may not work in all viewers on all platforms. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Image of 40% surfactant templated gel at 5 microns squared, data from Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), white represents high, blue represents low. (22 kb).

Image of 40% surfactant templated gel at 20 microns squared, data from AFM, to scale. The moon-rise in the background was taken from a NASA image and is added for no scientific purposes. The image was generated in POVRAY. (1.5 Mb)