Chemistry Letters, Vol.49, No.3, 280-283, 2020
Optimal Plasticizer Content for Magnetic Elastomers Used for Cell Culture Substrate
The effect of a magnetic field on the water contact angle for magnetic elastomers with various plasticizer contents was investigated. At a plasticizer content below 60 wt %, there was no change in contact angle when a magnetic field of 370 mT was applied. For magnetic elastomers with a plasticizer content above 65 wt %, a change in contact angle of approximately 8.0 degrees was observed (e.g. 38 degrees at 0 mT and 46 degrees at 370 mT for 65 wt % plasticizer content). Dynamic viscoelastic measurements showed that magnetic elastomers with a plasticizer content below 60 wt % demonstrate the magnetorheological (MR) effect with changes in storage modulus higher than similar to 1 MPa. Atomic force microscopy for magnetic elastomer with a plasticizer content of 50 wt % revealed that the averaged Young's modulus was 233 +/- 52.1 kPa at 370 mT and 83 +/- 5.4 kPa at 0 mT, indicating that the MR effect is caused not only on a bulk but also on a mesoscopic scale. Magnetic elastomers specialized for cell culture were obtained by optimizing the plasticizer content, that exhibit the MR effect with changes in storage modulus from 1.3 x 10(4) Pa to 9.4 x 10(5) without changing the surface properties.