Issue 31, 2012

Capillarity induced instability in responsive hydrogel membranes with periodic hole array

Abstract

We report capillary force induced instability from drying water swollen poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) based hydrogel membranes with micron-sized holes in a square array. When the PHEMA membrane was exposed to deionized-water, the size of the holes became smaller but retained the shape, so-called breathing mode instability. However, during the drying process, the square pore array buckled into a diamond plate pattern. The deformed pattern could be recovered upon re-exposure to water. The instability mechanism was confirmed by comparing the observations from optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images with theoretical prediction. When thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) was introduced to the PHEMA gel, the poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) (PHEMA-co-PNIPAAm) membrane underwent pattern transformation only if dried below the lower critical solution temperature of PNIPAAm. Along the pattern transformation, we observed a dramatic change of the optical property of the film, from colourful reflection to transparent window.

Graphical abstract: Capillarity induced instability in responsive hydrogel membranes with periodic hole array

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Feb 2012
Accepted
27 Mar 2012
First published
26 Apr 2012

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 8088-8093

Capillarity induced instability in responsive hydrogel membranes with periodic hole array

X. Zhu, G. Wu, R. Dong, C. Chen and S. Yang, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 8088 DOI: 10.1039/C2SM25393C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements