Fig. 3. Properties of the building blocks determine the LVE response in granular hydrogels.

(A) Frequency sweep (ω = 0.1 to 10 rad s⁻¹, γ = 0.1%, 25°C) of granular hydrogels (Ø = 55 μm building blocks) at various polymer weight percentages showed greater storage moduli G′ (closed symbols) than loss moduli G″ (open symbols) over the whole frequency range. (B) The plateau moduli, G_p, of granular hydrogels scaled nonlinearly with polymer weight percentage for Ø = 55 mm (blue) and Ø = 100 mm (red) building blocks (P < 0.001). (C) Loss factor, tan δ, of the packings decreased with the polymer content of the building blocks (P < 0.001). (D) Frequency sweeps (ω = 0.1 to 10 rad s⁻¹, γ = 0.1%, 25°C) of granular hydrogels with different size building blocks (E = 120 kPa microgels), G′ from top to bottom: Ø = 100 μm, red; Ø = 75 μm, yellow; Ø = 55 μm, blue; Ø = 25 μm, gray. (E) G_p of granular hydrogels depended on the building block size for E = 120 kPa (dark blue; P < 0.05) and was independent for E = 20 kPa [light blue; not significant (ns)] microgels. (F) Similarly, the tan δ value of the packings depended on the building block size for E = 120 kPa (dark blue; P < 0.05) but varied minimally as the size of the building blocks increased for E = 20 kPa (light blue; ns) microgels. (B, C, E, and F) Plots are represented as means ± SEM, n = 3. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA, with Tukey’s test for post hoc analysis.