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SUMMARY:Soft active materials - when mechanics meets chemistry
DTSTART:20120615T110000
DTEND:20120615T120000
DTSTAMP:20260407T105614Z
UID:20a75c6356fcec45d65b4bda8ffa1c06833fd2fa584f4807be546ad0
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Zhigang Suo\, Harvard University\nSoft materials can mim
 ic a salient feature of life:  deformation in response to diverse stimuli
 . For example\, an electric field can cause an elastomer to stretch severa
 l times its length.  As another example\, a change in pH can cause a gel 
 to swell many times its volume.  The deformation is large and reversible.
   Long and flexible polymers can be covalently crosslinked to form a thre
 e-dimensional network\, namely\, an elastomer.  The network can imbibe a 
 solvent and swell\, forming an elastomeric gel.  Gels have many uses\, in
 cluding personal care\, drug delivery\, tissue engineering\, microfluidic 
 regulation\, and oilfield management.  Mixtures of macromolecular elastom
 ers and mobile molecules also constitute most tissues of plants and animal
 s.  The amount of swelling can be large and reversible\, regulated by env
 ironmental stimuli\, such as force\, electric field\, pH\, salinity\, and 
 light.  This talk describes a theory that combines the mechanics of nonli
 near fields and the chemistry of molecular mixtures.  The theory is illus
 trated with examples of swelling-induced large deformation\, contact\, and
  bifurcation.  The theory is further illustrated with recent experiments.
LOCATION:MEB010
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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