I need to find an understanding of the mechanical parameters of a hydrogel fibre (such as alginate, chitosan or collagen) when wet (the modulus, ultimate stress and strain). I usually use dynamic mechanical tester in Tensile mode to measure those parameters in dry-state. But when they get wet, they soften. This makes almost impossible to clamp them with any methods.
Perhaps you should go for indentation technique, for instance using an atomic force microscope (not necessarily the cheapest option available unfortunately). That won't get you the ultimate strength but I guess you could measure the modulus. Since you want to compare dry and wet state, try looking for a technique that gets you both storage and loss modulus (eg. viscoelasticity), not only storage (e.g. elasticity).
Hello Azadeh,
You can probably clamp the soft fibers by introducing paper/ cardboard piece while clamping. The use of paper/cardboard piece will prevent slippage of fiber from the clamp as well as provide a rough surface for firm gripping. I do not know, what do mean by soft ? do the fiber crumble on gripping in clamp due to softness?
with regards,
What is the dimension of your hydrogel fibers? Check my paper on alginate hydrogel. We used a home made clamp combined with cardboard in order to improve the gripping.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=EeXkmuEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=EeXkmuEAAAAJ:2osOgNQ5qMEC
The method suggested in the paper looks good. Thanks Mahmoud Baniasadi for sharing this with me.
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