화학공학소재연구정보센터
Polymer, Vol.50, No.23, 5589-5597, 2009
Structural evolution of aging agar-gelatin co-hydrogels
Agar-gelatin co-hydrogel was investigated over a period of approximate to 30-days by dynamic light and small angle neutron scattering, and rheology to quantify changes occurring inside the hydrogel. Degree of non-ergodicity was extracted as a heterodyne contribution from the measured dynamic structure factor data. From the analysis of the data, we observed two relaxation modes namely fast and slow modes with relaxation times tau(f) and tau(s) whose dependence with aging time, t(a) fall on a scaling behavior given by power-laws, tau(f) similar to (t(a))(-1/5) and tau(s) similar to (t(a))(3/5) respectively. Further the analysis showed the heterogeneity size (xi(SANS)) obtained from SANS also follows power-law behavior, xi(SANS) similar to (t(a))(-1/5). The data taken together revealed the "speeding up" of fast and "slowing down" of slow mode relaxation processes. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.