Modeling and simulation of transport phenomena in ionic gels

Abstract

Ionic hydrogels belong to the class of polyelectrolyte gels or ionic gels. Their ability to swell or shrink under different environmental conditions such as change of pH, ion concentration or temperature make them promising materials, e.g. for microsensoric or microactuatoric devices. The hydrogel swelling exhibits nonlinear effects due to the occurrence of different interacting transport phenomena. Numerical simulations are an essential part in the ongoing development of microsensors and microactuators. In order to determine transport effects due to diffusion, migration and convection a multiphase mesoscale model based on the Theory of Porous Media is applied. The governing field equations are solved in the transient regime by applying the Finite Element Method. By means of the derived numerical framework a detailed investigation of the different transport phenomena is carried out. Numerical experiments are performed to characterize the dominating transfer phenomena for ionic gels under chemical stimulation.