Novel Approach to Increasing the Amplitude of the Mechanical Oscillations of Self-Oscillating Gels: Introduction of Catalysts Both as Pendant Groups and as Crosslinkers
Ilya L. Mallphanov,
Michail Y. Eroshik,
Dmitry A. Safonov,
Alexander V. Sychev,
Vyacheslav E. Bulakov,
Anastasia I. Lavrova
Affiliations
Ilya L. Mallphanov
Center for Nonlinear Chemistry, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 14 A. Nevskogo Street, Kaliningrad 236016, Russia
Michail Y. Eroshik
Center for Nonlinear Chemistry, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 14 A. Nevskogo Street, Kaliningrad 236016, Russia
Dmitry A. Safonov
Center for Nonlinear Chemistry, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 14 A. Nevskogo Street, Kaliningrad 236016, Russia
Alexander V. Sychev
Research Center for Condensed Matter Physics, Kursk State University, 33 Radishcheva Street, Kursk 305000, Russia
Vyacheslav E. Bulakov
Department of General and Bioorganic Chemistry, Pavlov First Saint-Petersburg State Medical University, 6-8 L’va Tolstogo Street, Saint-Petersburg 197022, Russia
Anastasia I. Lavrova
Center for Nonlinear Chemistry, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 14 A. Nevskogo Street, Kaliningrad 236016, Russia
For the first time, we introduced chemomechanical self-oscillating poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based gels containing catalytically active Fe or Ru complexes both as crosslinkers and as pendant groups. All the obtained gels exhibited sustained autonomous oscillations driven by the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction within their structure. The Ru complex-based gels also demonstrated pronounced chemomechanical oscillations; they periodically swelled/shrunk when the catalyst was reduced/oxidized. It was found that the combination of catalytically active cross-linking and pendant Ru complexes in the same gel led to a change in the structure of the gel and a significant increase in the amplitude of its mechanical oscillations. The proposed approach allowed for increasing the amplitude of the mechanical oscillations of self-oscillating gels and opened up new possibilities for adjusting their characteristics. We believe that these gels hold potential for the development of soft actuators and systems capable of signal processing through propagating and interacting chemical waves.
