The Swelling Responsiveness of pH-Sensitive Hydrogels in 3D Arbitrary Shaped Geometry

K. J. Suthar[1], D. C. Mancini[2], M. K. Ghantasala[3]
[1]Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
[2]Physical Sciences and Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
[3]Department of Mechanical Engineering, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
Published in 2013

The pH-sensitive hydrogels are responsive to the pH of surrounding solution, which often resemble to biomaterials. Recently, pH-sensitive hydrogels are widely used in various devices as sensing media. We present the simulation of swelling characteristic of 3D-arbitarary-geometry, pH-sensitive hydrogel in steady state conditions.

Three nonlinear partial-differential equations that are representing responsible physical phenomena namely- chemical, electrical and mechanical can describe the swelling responses to a chemical change in surrounding solution. Finite element analysis used for present study was carried out by full coupling of above three partial-differential equations with variable material properties in COMSOL Multiphysics®. Employing a moving mesh method for 3D geometry, the FEM simulation was performed to account for large-swelling of the pH-sensitive hydrogel.