A model of ideal elastomeric gels for polyelectrolyte gels

The concept of the ideal elastomeric gel is extended to polyelectrolyte gels and verified using a polyacrylamide-co-acrylic acid hydrogel as a model material system. A comparison between mixing and ion osmosis shows that the mixing osmosis is larger than the ion osmosis for small swelling ratios, while the ion osmosis dominates for large swelling ratios. We show further that the non-Gaussian chain effect becomes important in the elasticity of...