Published in
Royal Society of Chemistry, Soft Matter, 18(6), p. 4550
DOI: 10.1039/c003344h
Links
- ORCID
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- [library.tue.nl] | PDF
- [arxiv.org] | PDF
- [arxiv.org] | PDF
- [www.researchgate.net] | PDF
- [citeseerx.ist.psu.edu] | PDF
- [weitzlab.seas.harvard.edu] | PDF
Tools
Capillary micromechanics : measuring the elasticity of microscopic soft objects
,
Thomas Franke,
Elisa Mele,
Da David Weitz,
David A. Weitz
Full text: Download
Abstract
We present a simple method for accessing the elastic properties of microscopic deformable particles. This method is based on measuring the pressure-induced deformation of soft particles as they are forced through a tapered glass microcapillary. It allows us to determine both the compressive and the shear modulus of a deformable object in one single experiment. Measurements on a model system of poly-acrylamide microgel particles exhibit excellent agreement with measurements on bulk gels of identical composition. Our approach is applicable over a wide range of mechanical properties and should thus be a valuable tool for the characterization of a variety of soft and biological materials.