Abstract
Due to the aggregation behavior of nano-silica in aqueous solution, the use of nano-silica without surface modification for synthesizing hydrogels is still a challenging task. This paper presents our study on the use of dissipative particle dynamics simulations to discover the aggregation behavior of nano-silica in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/polyacrylamide (PAM) blended hydrogels. By simulations, we aimed at investigating the effects of such factors as nano-silica content, polymer component ratio, temperature and shear rate on the aggregation behavior of nano-silica in terms of the mesoscopic morphologies and the relative concentration distribution functions. Our results reveal that the dispersion of nano-silica is seen if the nano-silica content is increased to 1.5%, and the aggregation of nano-silica becomes noticeable in blended hydrogels with an increase in the nano-silica content. This finding agrees well with the experimental results obtained by means of scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, it is also found that the dispersion of nano-silica becomes more uniform with an increase in PAM content, temperature and shear rate. These findings greatly enrich our understanding of the aggregation behavior of nano-silica in PVA/PAM blended hydrogels.
Highlights
Polymer blending has become more important than ever in the synthesis of homopolymers and copolymers over the last decade, and allows for creating new materials with properties appropriate for many applications at low cost [1,2,3]
The dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation method was adopted to investigate the effects of silica content, polymer composition, temperature and shear rate on the aggregation behavior of nano-silica in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/PAM blended hydrogels
The results reveal that the nano-silica content has a great effect on the aggregation of nano-silica in the blended hydrogel system
Summary
Polymer blending has become more important than ever in the synthesis of homopolymers and copolymers over the last decade, and allows for creating new materials with properties appropriate for many applications at low cost [1,2,3]. This is true in tissue engineering [4,5,6]. Adding nano-silica particles into a PVA/PAM blended composite can improve mechanical properties, and promote proliferation
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