A Novel Hybrid Material of Polymer Gels and Bilayer Membranes

Responsive polymer gels that contain bilayer membranes have been synthesized and characterized as a novel hybrid material. The hybrid gels show some unique properties which cannot be obtained from the individual polymer gels and the bilayer membranes. Iridescent color resulting from the Bragg diffraction of visible light by the periodic structure of bilayer membranes can be changed by controlling the swelling degree of the gel. Introduction of bilayer membranes strongly affects the volume phase transition behavior of the gel. By the polymerization of a gel while shear flow is imposed upon the solution to be gelled, an anisotropic gel has been synthesized. The hybrid gels show more than a seven times larger elastic modulus and can be extended more than three times before fracture than the simple polymer gel.