Keynote Talk  - Wednesday, 15 September I 9:40 AM (CEST)

Prof. Nicholas D. Spencer: "Tailoring Hydrogel Surfaces"

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ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Hydrogels have myriad applications ranging from contact lenses to agriculture. Their surfaces and frictional behavior can be modified by molding techniques, but the generally accepted mechanism for this has been shown to be incorrect. By extensive use of AFM nanoindentation techniques, coupled with macroscopic friction measurements, infrared spectroscopy and neutron-reflectivity studies, we have definitively pinned down the mechanism for the molding effect on hydrogels, and developed approaches that allow spatially localized frictional tailoring of hydrogels.