Photochemical Patterning and Characterization of Mechanical Properties on Soft Materials

Innovative photoresponsive hydrogels have been developed, enabling advancements in soft robotics and digital information storage. Characterized through microindentation, the new photo-stiffening and photo-softening hydrogels utilize unique crosslinking methods. Their integration allows the design of soft actuators controlled by UV light, paving the way for versatile applications in multiple fields.

Automated Analysis of Soft Material Microindentation

Our RSC Soft Matter article is now published. The work describes the validation of a new method for the automated analysis of thousands of indentation curves for the 3D mapping of the mechanical properties of soft materials. The work was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Sebastien Rochat and Prof. Richard Trask at the University of Bristol, and funded by the EU Marie Curie Actions and the UK's EPSRC.