Hiearchical structures are abundant, ranging from biological materials like collagen, to engineered structures like the Eiffel tower, to suspensions of hydrogel particles. In such suspensions, cross-linked gels form micron-sized particles, which are then assembled into larger structures. The final mechanical properties of the suspension depend on structural characteristics on both gel- and particle-length-scales. In this talk, I will discuss a bottom-up approach to understand how structural hierarchy affects mechanics, as well as assembly techniques that take advantage of the hierachical nature of hydrogel particles.

Hierachical mechanics and assembly in hydrogels

255th National Meeting (2018)

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