Biointender for local quantification of mechanical response of soft and wet materials -BioMécaWet

Equipment, AAP 2019-2

Team: Science et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle (SIMM)

Abstract:

Porous materials are usually soft to very soft. Among them, gels – highly solvated matrices – are the subject of a growing interest, especially considering high-tech applications such as soft robotics, electronics or tissue engineering. While extensive work has been devoted to developing gels with original chemistries, their mechanical performances (as nonlinear elasticity, dissipation, bulk fracture or adhesion) have been disregarded often due to experimental difficulties to perform reliable characterizations together with the constrain to prepare large size samples.

In a more fundamental perspective, there is active cross-fertilization between the understanding – and control – of the structure/properties relationship in synthetic gels and living matter studies. Recently, tools have been developed that make it possible to probe the static and dynamic response of soft materials (under immersion conditions) at the micron scale. In this project, we make such a device (so-called Bioindenter) available to the soft material community of the Ile-de-France. The Bioindenter offers a key complementary technique that allows to build a unique experimental platform in Ile-de-France dedicated to the multi-scale mechanics of gels.

Themes:

Collaboration:

LCMCP - SIMM