CBE Colloquia - Toughening Strategies for Strong and Functional Gels
 

Gels are polymer networks swollen with solvents and exhibit great potential in many applications such as biomedicine, flexible electronics, and electrolytes for batteries. However, gels usually suffer from poor mechanical properties, which severely limit their applications.  This talk will present some simple yet effective toughening strategies for preparing tough gels with functionalities (e.g., conductive, self-healing, shape memory).  The complex  structural-property relationships between the macroscopic mechanical properties of gels and the interactions of their microscopic components will also be discussed. The simple synthesis processes make these tough and functional gels highly compatible with 3D printing technology, while  their excellent performance enables their use in fields such as sensors, encapsulation, and soft robotics. Importantly, these strategies are generalized and applicable to different monomers and solvents, thus enabling the preparation of a wide variety of tough and functional gels and further expanding the application scope of gels.