2022 Annual Meeting
Predictive Modeling of the Mechanical Properties in Triblock and Dual Triblock Copolymer Organogels
The goal of this project is to use a large collection of experimental mechanical property data in order to develop a comprehensive model for predicting the mechanical behavior of triblock and dual triblock organogels. Block copolymer gels have applications in various sectors such as ballistics gels, model surgery materials, and are even used in transoceanic cable filler. The triblock copolymer gels we study are composed of styrenic ABA triblock copolymers, such as SEBS, and aliphatic mineral oil. Dual triblock copolymer gels are similar, but contain two unique styrenic ABA triblock copolymers.The copolymers in gels form a physically-crosslinked network which explains their mechanical robustness and is influenced by polymer molecular weight, âAâ-block fraction, and polymer concentration in the gel. To characterize the mechanical behavior of these gels, we perform quasi-static tensile tests. The results of which are nonlinear, elastic stress-extension curves. We fit this data using the slip-tube network (STN) model that yields the crosslinked network and chain entanglement modulus contributions. These metrics are used in development of the final predictive model which will work for both triblock gels and dual triblock gels.