Swelling of glucose-responsive gels functionalized with boronic acid

A model is developed for the elastic response of a glucose-sensitive gel functionalized with boronic acid under swelling in aqueous solutions of glucose with various pH. A gel is treated as a three-phase medium composed of a solid phase (partially ionized polymer network), solvent (water), and solute (mobile glucose molecules and ions). Constitutive equations are derived by means of the free energy imbalance inequality for three-dimensional deformation with finite strains. Numerical analysis demonstrates the ability of the model to describe the effects of pH, molar fraction of glucose, and concentration of functional groups on equilibrium water uptake diagrams under unconstrained and constrained swelling.