CAREER: Robust, Reversible, and Stimuli-responsive Thermodynamic Adhesion in Hydrogels

事业：水凝胶中稳健、可逆且刺激响应的热力学粘附

• 批准号: 2337592
• 负责人: Qihan Liu
• 金额: $ 54.61万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-05-01 至 2029-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2337592&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Robust; Reversible; Stimuli; responsive

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant will support research that investigates a new type of hydrogel adhesion mechanism that can be switched on and off using external stimuli. Hydrogels are soft and hydrated materials similar to our body tissues. This similarity makes them useful for creating soft machines that better interact with human bodies. Applications of soft machines include medical implants, wearable devices, and biomimetic robots. Unlike conventional machines that are assembled by rigid parts like nuts and bolts, soft machines are assembled through deformable adhesion. Although some existing studies have realized hydrogel adhesion that can reliably survive larger deformation, it is difficult to reversibly switch the adhesion on and off so that the soft machine can be repaired or reconfigured by part exchange, which is a common practice in conventional machines. This project will investigate novel adhesion mechanisms that enable the reversible assembly of soft machines. The success of the project will revolutionize the design of soft machines, which in turn will impact the development of many relevant applications. Moreover, the project will create training materials to help graduate students turn cutting-edge research findings into short, easy-to-understand videos. These videos, when shared on free online platforms, can bring the latest research to a much wider and diverse audience than is possible through traditional academic journals and seminars.The project aims to realize switchable adhesions through stimuli-responsive osmocapillary and electrostatic interactions on hydrogel interfaces. While stimuli-responsive adhesion based on these mechanisms has been reported for some material-stimulus systems, the mechanics governing these mechanisms is understudied. This project will explore the underlying mechanics by (1) characterizing the adhesion under controlled thermodynamic states, thus establishing the thermodynamic constitutive relations of osmocapillary and electrostatic adhesion, (2) characterizing the adhesion with controlled bulk dissipation and performing finite element simulations to study the coupling between interfacial interactions and bulk dissipation, and (3) modeling time-dependent adhesion using established hydrogel field theories and validating the model with experiments. The outcome of the project will significantly deepen the understanding of osmocapillary and electrostatic interactions on hydrogel interfaces and will pave the way for designing reversible adhesion with customizable stimuli-responsive switching behaviors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这种教师早期职业发展（职业）赠款将支持研究研究一种新型水凝胶粘附机制，该机制可以使用外部刺激来打开和关闭。水凝胶是类似于我们身体组织的柔软和水合材料。这种相似性使它们对于创建更好地与人体互动的软机器有用。软机器的应用包括医疗植入物，可穿戴设备和仿生机器人。与由螺母和螺栓等刚性零件组装在一起的传统机器不同，软机器通过可变形的粘附组装。尽管一些现有的研究已经实现了可以可靠地生存更大变形的水凝胶粘附，但很难可逆地打开和关闭粘附力，以便可以通过Part Exchange对软机器进行修复或重新配置，这在常规机器中是一种常见的做法。该项目将研究新型的粘附机制，以使软机器的可逆组装能够进行。该项目的成功将彻底改变软计算机的设计，这反过来将影响许多相关应用的开发。此外，该项目将创建培训材料，以帮助研究生将尖端的研究结果变成简短，易于理解的视频。这些视频在免费的在线平台上共享时，可以将最新的研究带给更广泛和多样化的受众群体，而不是通过传统的学术期刊和研讨会的可能性。该项目旨在通过刺激反应性的渗透压和静电相互作用在水凝胶界面上实现可切换的粘附。虽然已经报道了一些基于这些机制的刺激响应性粘附，但针对某些材料刺激系统，研究了这些机制的力学。 This project will explore the underlying mechanics by (1) characterizing the adhesion under controlled thermodynamic states, thus establishing the thermodynamic constitutive relations of osmocapillary and electrostatic adhesion, (2) characterizing the adhesion with controlled bulk dissipation and performing finite element simulations to study the coupling between interfacial interactions and bulk dissipation, and (3) modeling time-dependent adhesion using建立的水凝胶场理论并通过实验验证了模型。该项目的结果将显着加深对水凝胶界面上渗透毛细血管和静电相互作用的理解，并将为设计可逆的粘附行为设计铺平道路。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过评估智能分类和广泛的影响，反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过评估了支持。