2008/10/22 by T. Baumberger, O. Ronsin · 39 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Biopolymer #Drag #Elasticity and Material Modeling #Fracture (geology) #Gelatin #Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications #Rheology #Rheometry #Self-healing hydrogels #Toughening #Viscosity #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3078267
published in The Journal of Chemical Physics 130(6), 061102 (American Institute of Physics)
arxiv created 2008/10/22 · openalex publication_date 2009/02/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report on rate-dependent fracture energy measurements over three decades of steady crack velocities in alginate and gelatin hydrogels. We evidence that irrespective of gel thermoreversibility, thermally activated "unzipping" of the noncovalent cross-link zones results in slow crack propagation, prevailing against the toughening effect of viscous solvent drag during chain pull-out, which becomes efficient above a few mm s(-1). We extend a previous model [T. Baumberger et al., Nat. Mater. 5, 552 (2006)] to account for both mechanisms and estimate the microscopic unzipping rates.