A Kinetics Approach to Surface Instability of Soft Materials

这笔赠款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。水凝胶类软材料具有类似生物组织的高机械柔韧性和化学可调性，近年来已被开发为生物医学和仿生设备中的软活性材料，具有广泛的应用前景，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解开生物生长过程中一些普遍的物理过程。在实验观察的推动下，这项拟议的研究将发展一种动力学方法，结合解析和数值方法来研究软材料的表面不稳定模式，如皱纹和折痕。这些不稳定现象反映了软材料典型的复杂行为，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，这项拟议的研究将大大加强对合成和生物系统中软材料物理性质的基本了解。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。教育和外联活动将纳入拟议的项目，以加强其社会影响。拟议的项目将为包括研究生、本科生、少数民族学生和女性在内的广泛参与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向学术界和公众广泛传播。

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.