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US 10,208,158 B2Granted
Super elastic epoxy hydrogel
AssigneesMedipacs, Inc., Arizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University of Arizona
InventorsMark Banister, Dominic McGrath
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described is a super elastic epoxy hydrogel that is easy to manufacture and can be engineered for various performance enhancements of the polymer. Also described are methods of enhancing the performance of this hydrogel and other hydrogels. Various polymer hydrogel composites, structures, and their uses are included, such as the actuator element comprising the hydrogel of the invention depicted in FIG. 2.
Claims11
An elastic volume changing epoxy hydrogel polymer composition comprising (a) the reaction product of a polyether amine and a polyglycidyl ether;
- (b) at least one metal oxide to control swelling, density and porosity characteristics of the polymer structure;
- (c) a photo responsive or photo-sensitive material selected from the group consisting of a laser dye, a photo oxidizer, a photo acid generator, a photosensitizing electron transport material, a hole transport material, a polyaniline, a liquid crystalline material, a photo-luminescent material, a photo-luminescent polymer, a fluorescent polymides, a fluorescent monomer, a light emitting conjugated polymer, a poly(fluorenylene ethynylene), a polyfluorene, a polyacetylene, a polypyridine, a polythiophene, a poly(phenylene ethynylene), a polyphenylene vinylene, a light emitting dopant functionalized polymer, a light emitting organometallic complex, a triplet emitter, a phthalocynine dye, a porphyrin dye, a chromatography dye, and a combination thereof, to control ionic flow into or out of the polymer structure;
- and (d) a conductive polymer, a metal, a carbon, a mineral, an acid, a salt, and a combination thereof, in the form of nanoparticles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.