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Articular cartilage has limited self-repair capacity due to the lack of vascularization, innervation and lymphatic networks. Biomimetic scaffolds with features of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of cartilage are advantageous to repair the injured cartilage tissue, but it remains a challenge to regulate its shear viscoelasticity to meet the needs of applications as articular cartilages. Fiber reinforced hydrogel is of great significance for their clinical application as cartilage tissue engineering scaffolds, especially for repairing the fibrocartilage tissue like meniscus or temporomandibular joint disc. In order to promote the shear viscoelasticity of alginate hydrogels, which was seldom studied, electrospinning PCL nanofiber layers were added into the alginate hydrogels to prepare PCL nanofibers reinforced alginate hydrogel composites (PNRAHCs). Compared with neat alginate hydrogel scaffolds, the PNRAHCs presented coral-like structure and spider web-like structure, and some PCL nanofibers form reinforced fiber bundles. Those special structures make the PNRAHCs have higher porosity, higher shear storage modulus and higher shear loss modulus than the neat alginate hydrogels, indicating better shear mechanical properties. They have the potential to be applied as the scaffolds to repair fibrocartilage tissues.

The decellularization of organs has attracted attention as a new functional methodology for regenerative medicine based on tissue engineering. In previous work we developed an L-ECM (Extracellular Matrix) as a substrate-solubilized decellularized liver and demonstrated its effectiveness as a substrate for culturing and transplantation. Importantly, the physical properties of the substrate constitute important factors that control cell behavior. In this study, we aimed to quantify the physical properties of L-ECM and L-ECM gels. L-ECM was prepared as a liver-specific matrix substrate from solubilized decellularized porcine liver. In comparison to type I collagen, L-ECM yielded a lower elasticity and exhibited an abrupt decrease in its elastic modulus at 37 °C. Its elastic modulus increased at increased temperatures, and the storage elastic modulus value never fell below the loss modulus value. An increase in the gel concentration of L-ECM resulted in a decrease in the biodegradation rate and in an increase in mechanical strength. The reported properties of L-ECM gel (10 mg/mL) were equivalent to those of collagen gel (3 mg/mL), which is commonly used in regenerative medicine and gel cultures. Based on reported findings, the physical properties of the novel functional substrate for culturing and regenerative medicine L-ECM were quantified.

Cortical bone is a complex hierarchical structure consisting of biological fiber composites with transversely isotropic constituents, whose microstructures deserve extensive study to understand the mechanism of living organisms and explore development of biomimetic materials. Based on this, we establish a three-level hierarchical structure from microscale to macroscale and propose a multiscale micromechanics model of cortical bone, which considers Haversian canal, osteonal lamellae, cement line and interstitial lamellae. In order to study the microstructural effect on the elastic behavior of hierarchical structures, the Mori–Tanaka model and locally exact homogenization theory are introduced for the homogenization of heterogeneous materials of microstructure at each level. Within sub-microscale, Haversian canal and Osteonal lamella are treated as fiber and matrix, whose homogenization is surrounded with cement line matrix in microstructure (or what we called “osteon”) for the second homogenization; finally, osteon and interstitial lamella establish the meso-structure for the third homogenization, predicting the effective moduli of cortical bone. The correctness of the model in this paper is verified against the data in literature with good agreement. Finally, the dynamic viscoelastic response of cortical bones is investigated from a multiscale perspective, where the measured data are substituted into the present models to study the hydration and aging effect on bones’ stiffness and viscoelasticity. It is demonstrated that the hydration is much more influential in affecting the storage and loss moduli of cortical bone than the aging effect. We also present a few numerical investigations on microstructural material and geometric parameters on the overall mechanical properties of cortical bone.

A novel poly(acrylamide)/ clay mineral composite was synthesized by controlled radical polymerization of acrylamide, clay minerals using potassium persulfate (KPS) and N, N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as redox initiator and cobalt acetylacetonate (Co(acac) 2 ) as a catalyst in an aqueous solution. Synthesized nanocomposite copolymer was characterized by FTIR, XRD and DSC. XRD indicated intercalation formation by an inter-planar spacing increase between the clay layers. DSC showed an increase in the thermal stability of the mentioned hydrogels. Hydrogels with acceptable gel strengths, gelation time and gel stability were prepared by crosslinking of aqueous solutions of synthesized nanocomposite copolymer with Chromium (III) acetate for using in water shut-off operations in oil reservoirs. The effects of pH, salinity, Co(acac) 2 , temperature, and clay minerals on the gelation time were investigated, and the activation energy was measured. By increasing temperature, gelation occurred more rapidly. The addition of Co(acac) 2 increased loss and storage modulus because of reversible activation-deactivation radical polymerization and decreased the gel swelling. Polymer chains can be diffused between the clay layers so the elastic modulus (G′) of the prepared hydrogels increased than hydrogels without nanoclays, and the reversible interaction between clay and acrylamide chains led to increased loss modulus (G′′).

The paper describes the synthesis of pectin-based hydrogels with different contents of methoxy groups. The pectin crosslinking has been carried out using acylhydrazone groups, the dicarboxylic acid dihydrazides being used as crosslinkers in the absence of any catalyst. It has been established that covalently crosslinked hydrogels are formed from highly methoxylated pectin even at low concentrations of the crosslinkers, whereas the formation of covalently crosslinked hydrogel occurs only at a high concentration of the cross-linker for low-methoxylated pectin. Rheological properties and network structure parameters of the pectin hydrogels as functions of the content of methoxy groups and the cross-linkers have been comprehensively studied. It has been shown that the shear modulus of the hydrogels increases slightly but regularly in the number of malonic–succinic–glutaric–adipic dihydrazide series of the cross–linkers and significantly depends on their concentration. It has been found that thermal stability of the pectin hydrogels increases with an increase in the content of the acylhydrazone bonds.

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) allows for the measurement of the complex shear modulus of an elastomer. Measurements at frequencies above the frequency range of the device can be reached thanks to the Time–Temperature Equivalence principle. Yet, frequencies higher than a few kHz are not attainable. Here, we propose a method exploiting the physics of bubble phononic crystals to measure the complex shear modulus at frequencies of a few tens of kHz. The idea is to fabricate a phononic crystal by creating a period arrangement of bubbles in the elastomer of interest, here PolyDiMethylSiloxane (PDMS), and to measure its transmission against frequency. Fitting the results with an analytic model provides both the loss and storage moduli. Physically, the shear storage modulus drives the position of the dip observed in transmission while the loss modulus controls the damping, and thus the level of transmission. Using this method, we are able to compare the high-frequency rheological properties of two commercial PDMS and to monitor the ageing process.

The mechanical properties of extracellular matrices can control the function of cells. Studies of cellular responses to biomimetic soft materials have been largely restricted to hydrogels and elastomers that have stiffness values independent of time and extent of deformation, so the substrate stiffness can be unambiguously related to its effect on cells. Real tissues, however, often have loss moduli that are 10 to 20% of their elastic moduli and behave as viscoelastic solids. The response of cells to a time-dependent viscous loss is largely uncharacterized because appropriate viscoelastic materials are lacking for quantitative studies. Here we report the synthesis of soft viscoelastic solids in which the elastic and viscous moduli can be independently tuned to produce gels with viscoelastic properties that closely resemble those of soft tissues. Systematic alteration of the hydrogel viscosity demonstrates the time dependence of cellular mechanosensing and the influence of viscous dissipation on cell phenotype. Purely elastic biomimetic soft materials are used to characterize the mechanical response of cells, but do not resemble real tissues. Here the authors develop a viscoelastic solid hydrogel, based on polyacrylamide, that can be tuned to closely resemble soft tissue, and show the influence of viscous dissipation on cellular mechanical sensing.

The thermal stability of natural fiber composites is a relevant aspect to be considered since the processing temperature plays a critical role in the manufacturing process of composites. At higher temperatures, the natural fiber components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) start to degrade and their major properties (mechanical and thermal) change. Different methods are used in the literature to determine the thermal properties of natural fiber composites as well as to help to understand and determine their suitability for a certain applications (e.g., Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and differential mechanical thermal analysis (DMA)). Weight loss percentage, the degradation temperature, glass transition temperature (Tg), and viscoelastic properties (storage modulus, loss modulus, and the damping factor) are the most common thermal properties determined by these methods. This paper provides an overview of the recent advances made regarding the thermal properties of natural and hybrid fiber composites in thermoset and thermoplastic polymeric matrices. First, the main factors that affect the thermal properties of natural and hybrid fiber composites (fiber and matrix type, the presence of fillers, fiber content and orientation, the treatment of the fibers, and manufacturing process) are briefly presented. Further, the methods used to determine the thermal properties of natural and hybrid composites are discussed. It is concluded that thermal analysis can provide useful information for the development of new materials and the optimization of the selection process of these materials for new applications. It is crucial to ensure that the natural fibers used in the composites can withstand the heat required during the fabrication process and retain their characteristics in service.

Materials that exhibit yielding behavior are used in many applications, from spreadable foods and cosmetics to direct write three-dimensional printing inks and filled rubbers. Their key design feature is the ability to transition behaviorally from solid to fluid under sufficient load or deformation. Despite its widespread applications, little is known about the dynamics of yielding in real processes, as the nonequilibrium nature of the transition impedes understanding. We demonstrate an iteratively punctuated rheological protocol that combines strain-controlled oscillatory shear with stress-controlled recovery tests. This technique provides an experimental decomposition of recoverable and unrecoverable strains, allowing for solid-like and fluid-like contributions to a yield stress material’s behavior to be separated in a time-resolved manner. Using this protocol, we investigate the overshoot in loss modulus seen in materials that yield. We show that this phenomenon is caused by the transition from primarily solid-like, viscoelastic dissipation in the linear regime to primarily fluid-like, plastic flow at larger amplitudes. We compare and contrast this with a viscoelastic liquidwith no yielding behavior, where the contribution to energy dissipation from viscous flow dominates over the entire range of amplitudes tested.

A key objective in DNA-based material science is understanding and precisely controlling the mechanical properties of DNA hydrogels. We perform microrheology measurements using diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) to investigate the viscoelastic behavior of a hydrogel made of Y-shaped DNA (Y-DNA) nanostars over a wide range of frequencies and temperatures.We observe a clear liquid-to-gel transition across the melting temperature region for which the Y-DNA bind to each other. Our measurements reveal a cross-over between the elastic G′(ω) and loss modulus G″(ω) around the melting temperature Tm of the DNA building blocks, which coincides with the systems percolation transition. This transition can be easily shifted in temperature by changing the DNA bond length between the Y shapes. Using bulk rheology as well, we further show that, by reducing the flexibility between the Y-DNA bonds, we can go from a semiflexible transient network to a more energy-driven hydrogel with higher elasticity while keeping the microstructure the same. This level of control in mechanical properties will facilitate the design of more sensitive molecular sensing tools and controlled release systems.