Abstract
Contrary to common belief, the softness of polymer gels is determined by negative energy elasticity and not only by entropy elasticity, a key finding for designing gels used in medical applications at various temperatures.
Highlights
Rubbers and rubberlike polymer gels are composed of three-dimensional networks of cross-linked polymer chains and have very different elastic properties compared to hard solids such as metals and ceramics: softness, high elongation, and an evident Gough-Joule effect
We further argue that GE is governed by a vanishing temperature, which is a universal function of the normalized polymer concentration, and GE vanishes when the solvent is removed
We have discovered that the energy contribution to shear modulus (GE), which is negligible in rubbers, can be a significant negative value in rubberlike polymer gels containing a large amount of solvents in the asprepared state
Summary
Rubbers and rubberlike polymer gels are composed of three-dimensional networks of cross-linked polymer chains and have very different elastic properties compared to hard solids such as metals and ceramics: softness, high elongation, and an evident Gough-Joule effect. Both are highly stretchable as a result of network structures formed by chemically cross-linked polymer chains. To examine this conventional postulation (σ ≃ σS), we measure the temperature dependence of the shear stress and the shear modulus in a rubberlike polymer gel in the as-prepared state. Several details are described in the Appendixes to avoid digressing from the main subject
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