Super elastic epoxy hydrogel
View Patent ↗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.
1. 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.
2. The composition of claim 1 , wherein said polyether amine is selected from the group consisting of polyoxyalkyleneamine, and a (poly)alkylene glycol having amino or alkylamino termini selected from the group consisting of polyethylene glycol amine, di-(3-aminopropyl) diethylene glycol, polyetherdiamine, polyoxypropylenediamine, polyoxyethylenediamine, and triethyleneglycol diamine.
3. The composition of claim 2 wherein the polyetheramine comprises a polyether backbone with primary amino groups attached to its terminus, and wherein the polyether backbone is selected from the group consisting of propylene oxide, ethylene oxide, mixed ethylene oxide/propylene oxide, another backbone segment of varied reactivity provided by hindering the primary amine or through secondary amine functionality, and a mixture thereof.
4. The composition of claim 1 , wherein said polyether amine has a molecular weight of 5,000 or less and is selected from the group consisting of a monoamine, a diamine, a triamine, a quaternary amine and a mixture thereof.
5. The composition of claim 1 , wherein said polyglycidyl ether is selected from the group consisting of diethylene glycol diglycidyl ether; ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether; 1,3-butanediol diglycidyl ether; poly(propylene glycol) diglycidyl ether; poly(dimethylsiloxane), diglycidyl ether terminated; neopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether; neopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether, brominated; cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether, mixture of cis and trans, glycerol diglycidyl ether; diglycerol polyglycidyl ether; glycerol polyglycidyl ether; bisphenol A diglycidyl ether, bisphenol A diglycidyl ether, brominated; bisphenol S diglycidyl ether; bisphenol F diglycidyl ether; bis[4-(glycidyloxy)phenyl]methane; 1,4-butanediyl diglycidyl ether; 4-butanediol diglycidyl ether; bisphenol A propoxylate diglycidyl ether; 1,3-bis(2,3-epoxypropoxy)benzene; 1,3-diglycidyloxybenzene; resorcinol diglycidyl ether; diglycidyl resorcinol; diglycidyl resorcinol ether; resorcinol diglycidyl ether; hydroquinone diglycidyl ether; 2,2′-[1,3phenylenebis(oxymethylene)]bisoxirane; m-bis(2,3-epoxypropoxy)benzene; meta-bis(glycidyloxy)benzene; resorcinol bis(2,3-epoxypropyl)ether; trimethylolpropane triglycidyl ether; sorbitol polyglycidyl ether; polyglycerol polyglycidyl ether; pentaerythritol polyglycidyl ether; trimethylolpropane polyglycidyl ether; polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether; glycidyl ester ether of p-hydroxy benzoic acid; 1,6-hexanediol diglycidyl ether; terephthalic acid diglycidyl ester, and a mixture thereof.
6. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide functions as a chemical catalyst, photo catalyst or electrical catalyst.
7. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles are suspended in, or are in the form of a liquid solution.
8. The composition of claim 1 , wherein an aqueous solution or a solvent is used for polymerization.
9. The composition of claim 8 , wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of a monomer, a polyether amine, a glycidyl ether and combination thereof.
10. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the polyether amine is hydrophilic and the polyglycidyl ether is hydrophilic prior to curing.
11. The composition of claim 1 , further comprising a dendrimer selected from the group consisting of a polyamidoamine polyether dendrimer, a poly(propylene-imine) PPI-dendrimer, an amino-functionalized dendrimer, and combination thereof, incorporated in the polymer structure.