Accelerating the stimuli-responsive bending of a gel using mechanical constraints

A Unified Model for Non-Fickian Diffusion and Anomalous Swelling of Glassy Polymer Gels

“…In this paper, we propose a 3D theory for the swelling of glassy polymer. We regard the glassy polymer as a viscoelastic gel of glassy polymer and discuss its swelling using the same framework as that for the soft polymer gels. − We take the conventional view for glass transition and assume that the kinetic parameters (solvent diffusion constants and polymer relaxation times) change by orders of magnitude at some characteristic solvent volume fraction. We shall show that this simple model reproduces the two anomalies, the case II diffusion and the nonmonotonous shape change, without introducing any additional assumptions.…”