Determination of the shear modulus of gelatine hydrogels by magnetization measurements using dispersed nickel nanorods as mechanical probes

Ni nanorods are dispersed into gelatine gels and used as nanoprobes to estimate the shear modulus of the surrounding gel matrix by magnetization measurements. The nanorods are synthesized via pulsed electrodeposition of Ni into porous alumina, released from the templates by dissolution of the oxide layer and after several processing steps dispersed into gelatine gels with an isotropic orientation-distribution. Magnetization measurements of the resulting gels show a significant influence of the gelatine concentration on their magnetic behavior. In particular, with decreasing gelatine concentration the measured coercivity is reduced indicating a mechanical rotation of the nanorods in the field direction. A theoretical model which relates the measured coercivity to the shear modulus of the surrounding gel matrix is introduced and applied to investigate the ageing process of gelatine gels with different gelatine concentrations at room temperature.