Dynamometric measurements of hydrogels' mechanical spectra

Hydrogels' viscoelastic behavior is crucial in several applications and an in-depth knowledge and characterization of this property is essential to select the most appropriate gel for the specific use. Oscillatory shear measurements are the most commonly used techniques to perform the viscoelastic characterization of hydrogels, among other materials, and it is performed mainly by using plate-plate shear rheometers. Despite these instruments constitute one of the best options to analyze the mechanical response of materials, they are quite expensive and require well trained operators, which confine their presence exclusively in engineering labs. However, the use of hydrogels brought these materials to be present in countless sectors, and therefore poses the need of reliable characterization with as much simple and common instrumentations. Therefore, aim of this work is to present the possibility to obtain a trustworthy characterization of the viscoelasticity of hydrogel by using a Texture Analyzer set to work with sinusoidal deformations.