2015 年 25 巻 2 号 p. 120-125
Polymer gels are functional soft materials with high-water absorbency and good affinity to various kinds of solutes, such as foods, cosmetics, and medicines. Because of these characteristic features, gels have been used in daily life over the centuries. Due to their complicated network structures, however, polymer gels have been recognized as messy systems in chemistry and physics. However, the discovery of volume-phase transition of gels in 1978 shed a light on gels. Polymer gels became one of the most topical themes in soft-condensed matter physics. Another aspect of gels is their fragility. Because of it, gels have not been applied to constructional materials. In the beginning of this century, however, several types of super-tough polymer gels were discovered and developed especially in our country. Now, polymer gels have various potential applications not only to foods and cosmetics but also to bioengineering tissues, medicine, and even to constructional materials. In order to understand and improve the properties of gels, it is essential to investigate the structure of gels. I have been devoted in structural characterization of polymer gels with neutron scattering during the last three decades. This article reviews neutron scattering studies on polymer gels together with micelles from a personal viewpoint.
