A Kinetics Approach to Surface Instability of Soft Materials

这项资助的研究目标是阐明在合成软材料和生物系统中观察到的复杂表面图案的潜在动力学过程。由于具有与生物组织相似的高机械灵活性和化学可调性，水凝胶状软材料最近被用作生物医学和生物启发设备中的软活性材料，用于广泛的应用，包括药物输送，组织工程，微尺度传感器和执行器。人们还认识到，水凝胶状软材料的膨胀行为可以用来揭示生物生长过程中起作用的一些普遍物理过程。在实验观察的激励下，该研究将发展一种动力学方法，结合分析和数值方法，研究软材料（如皱纹和折痕）的表面不稳定模式。这些不稳定现象反映了软材料的典型复杂行为，其中力学本质上与化学和多物理相互作用（例如，热，电，光学等）相耦合。如果成功，该研究将大大提高对合成和生物系统中软材料物理性质的基本理解。在拟议的研究中开发的理论和计算工具将使有源器件应用的软材料的表征和设计成为可能。教育和外展活动将纳入拟议的项目，以加强其社会影响。建议的项目将为广泛参与的研究生、本科生、少数民族和女学生提供充足的研究机会。研究结果将被纳入研究生和本科课程。研究和教育活动的成果将广泛传播给学术界和公众。

The research objective of this grant is to elucidate the underlying kinetic processes that are responsible for intricate surface patterns observed in both synthetic soft materials and biological systems. With high mechanical flexibility and chemical tunability similar to biological tissues, hydrogel-like soft materials have been exploited recently as soft active materials in biomedical and bio-inspired devices for a wide range of applications, including drug delivery, tissue engineering, microscale sensors and actuators. It has also been recognized that the swelling behavior of hydrogel-like soft materials could be used to unravel some of the universal physical processes at work during biological growth. Motivated by experimental observations, the proposed research will develop a kinetics approach with analytical and numerical methods for the study of surface instability patterns in soft materials, such as wrinkles and creases. These instability phenomena reflect the typically complex behaviors of soft materials, where mechanics is inherently coupled with chemistry and multiphysical interactions (e.g., thermal, electrical, optical, etc.). If successful, the proposed study will significantly enhance fundamental understanding on the physical nature of soft materials in both synthetic and biological systems. The theoretical and computational tools developed in the proposed research will enable characterization and design of soft materials for active device applications. Education and outreach activities will be integrated within the proposed project to enhance its societal impacts. The proposed project will open ample research opportunities for broad participation including graduate, undergraduate, minority and female students. The results from the research will be incorporated into graduate and undergraduate courses. The outcomes of the research and education activities will be broadly disseminated to the academic community as well as the general public.