Mechanics of pH-responsive hydrogel capsules

Abstract

While soft hydrogel nano- and microstructures hold great potential for therapeutic treatments and in vivo applications, their nanomechanical characterization remains a challenge. In this paper, soft, single-component, supported hydrogel films were fabricated using pendant-thiol-modified poly(methacrylic acid) (PMASH). The influence of hydrogel architecture on deformation properties was studied by fabricating films on particle supports and producing free-standing capsules. The influence of the degree of thiol-based cross-linking on the mechanical properties of the soft hydrogel systems (core-shell and capsules) was studied using a colloidal-probe (CP) AFM technique. It was found that film mec..