In this thesis, three different types of polymer-based gels are fabricated and characterized for passive and active applications. Silica aerogel is a 3D mesoporous solid material that can be used for thermal insulation or in the biomedical industry. In this thesis, silica aerogel is cross- linked with diisocyanate to improve its strength and flexibility, which greatly opens up the range of applications. Then, soft polymer gel with tissue equivalent characteristics is fabricated to mimic the spin-lattice (T1) and spin-spin (T2) relaxation times for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phantom of a liver with lesions. This study demonstrates a relationship between the composition of a gelling agent, and T1 and T2 modifiers on its dielectric, mechanical and imaging properties. Finally, an ionic electroactive polymer (EAP) that can be actuated on an electric field is fabricated, and its swelling and bending behaviours on design parameters are closely examined.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25628 |
| Date | 01 January 2011 |
| Creators | In, Eunji |
| Contributors | Naguib, Hani E. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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