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Influence of Solvent on Deformation Behavior of Hydrogels
Kulovaná, Eva ; Bartlová, Milada (referee) ; Mráček, Aleš (referee) ; Žídek, Jan (advisor)
The thesis deals with molecular dynamic simulation of the influence of water on the deformation of hydrogels. Hydrogels are model materials formed from macromolecular networks solvated with water. It was found that water can form bridges between macromolecules that take the form of temporary ionic crosslinks. These bridges affect the behavior of the network during deformation. Water bridges are water molecules that have a limited radius of motion in the space between two macromolecules. The concentration of the water bridges was regulated by a partial charge on the macromolecular chain in the organic network. Bridges are a type of interaction that is relatively strong but significantly delocalized. It is not possible to dissociate the water bridge, after dissociation it will be re-created in another place in a short time. The influence of water bridges was compared with other types of network crosslinks, especially covalent and physical bonds. Covalent crosslinks are modeled as a simple binding interaction between two macromolecules. They are undissociable and are local throughout the simulation. Physical bonds are modeled as micelles, where hydrophobic groups form the core and hydrophilic groups form the micelle shell. Physical bonds have the nature of dissociable bonds that are local. Different types of crosslinks have different effects on deformation properties. The deformation of a network containing a combination of two types of crosslinks was simulated: (i) physically-covalent, (ii) ionically-covalent, and (iii) physically-ionic networks and (iv) ternary physically-covalent-ion networks. For individual and combined networks, the behavior depending on simple networks was verified. The number of water bridges was fundamentally affected by the primary structure of the chains. When the PEG chain was replaced with hydrophobic polyoxymethylene (POM) or polyoxytrimethylene (POTM), their solvation and mechanical behavior deteriorated.
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