Syneresis in agar hydrogels.

Agar hydrogels exhibit syneresis which creates internal osmotic stress on the physical network. It was observed that such a stress gives rise to characteristic pulsating modes (breathing modes). Experiments carried over a period of 60-day revealed that the network deformations grew monotonously when the solvent released by syneresis was removed periodically from gel surface. However, when the solvent was not withdrawn, the gel exhibited very slowly relaxing breathing modes. The swelling-deswelling dynamics has been discussed in the generalized framework of a dissipative damped oscillator. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.