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AssigneeUniversity of Maryland, College Park
InventorsSrinivasa R. Raghavan, Hema Choudhary
Estimating the term…
Superabsorbent and rapidly expanding porous gels can be made from the in situ foaming of a monomer solution (e.g., acrylic acid and acrylamide) using a double-barreled syringe having an acid and a base in respective barrels. Gas (e.g., CO2) can be generated at the mixing tip of the syringe by the acid-base reaction, and gas bubbles may be stabilized by an amphiphilic polymer in one of the barrels. Monomers can be polymerized by ultraviolet (UV) light to form the gel around the bubbles, and the material can be dried under ambient conditions to yield a porous solid. A resulting gel can absorb water at an extremely high rate until equilibrium is achieved, for example, at ˜300 times its weight and/or at more than 3 times its size. Such expansion can be used to lift weight, in mechanical work, in new designs for mechano-chemical engines, in artificial muscles, etc.
An absorbent porous gel comprising:
A absorbent porous gel comprising:
An absorbent porous gel comprising:
A method of forming a construct out of a rapidly expanding porous gel comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.