ELASTO-MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SOLID-LIQUID COMPOSITES

Solid-liquid composites (SLCs) are a class of soft materials with soft solid matrix encapsulating liquid inclusions. These novel composite materials have a wide range of potential applications, including thermal management, biomedicine, soft-robotics, and flexible electronics. By manipulating the type and volume of the liquid inclusion, the properties of SLCs can be fine-tuned to suit specific requirements. In this work, a dilute SLC is developed using commercial grade silicone (Smoothon Ecoflex 00-30) as the solid phase and laboratory-grade Glycerin as the liquid inclusion. While Eco-flex 00-30 mimics the behavior of a certain class of human tissues, Glycerin was selected as it is non-toxic and immiscible with silicone. A novel fabrication technique was developed for the precise distribution of the liquid inclusion in the soft polymeric material. The elastic properties of the SLCs were then determined experimentally for various volume fractions of the inclusion phase. The experimental data was then used to characterize the linear-elastic and hyperelastic material properties. The fabricated SLCs are also shown to exhibit properties similar to biofidelic materials from literature.