Anisotropic magnetic hydrogels: design, structure and mechanical properties Gila Vilchez, Cristina Mañas Torres, María del Carmen Contreras-Montoya, Rafael Alaminos Mingorance, Miguel Durán, Juan D. G. Álvarez Cienfuegos Rodríguez, Luis López López, Modesto Torcuato magnetic hydrogels magnetic particles microstructure polymers rheology anisotropy hidrogeles magnéticos partículas magnéticas reología polímeros anisotropía Anisotropy is an intrinsic feature of most of the human tissues (e.g. muscle, skin or cartilage). Because of this, there has been an intense effort in the search of methods for the induction of permanent anisotropy in hydrogels intended for biomedical applications. The dispersion of magnetic particles or beads in the hydrogel precursor solution prior to cross-linking, in combination with applied magnetic fields, which gives rise to columnar structures, is one of the most recently proposed approaches for this goal. We have gone even further and, in this paper, we show that it is possible to use magnetic particles as actuators for the alignment of the polymer chains in order to obtain anisotropic hydrogels. Furthermore, we characterize the microstructural arrangement and mechanical properties of the resulting hydrogels. This article is part of a theme issue ‘Heterogeneous materials: metastable and non-ergodic internal structures’. 2019-04-03T07:03:27Z 2019-04-03T07:03:27Z 2019-03-04 info:eu-repo/semantics/article http://hdl.handle.net/10481/55320 10.1098/rsta.2018.0217 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España