High-strength, ultrastretchable hydrophobic association hydrogel reinforced by tailored modified carboxymethyl cellulose

A new pathway to construct high-strength, ultrastretchable hydrogels based on tailored modified carboxymethyl cellulose (TMCMC)and hydrophobic association(HPA) system was investigated. TMCMC was prepared from degradation of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)/N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) chemical cross-linked hydrogels. The residual double bonds of TMCMC, confirmed by 1 H-NMR and FTIR analysis, reacted with acrylamide in HPA to form TMCMC/HPA hydrogels, and the homogeneous and fine spatial network structure of TMCMC/HPA hydrogel could be observed by scanning electron microscopy. Rheological analysis revealed that the coexistence of physical and chemical crosslinking in TMCMC/HPA hydrogels. Further studies showed that TMCMC/HPA hydrogel with MBA content of 0.5 wt% has outstanding mechanical properties, and its fracture stress, elongation and tensile strength reach 1.17 MPa, 3717.05% and 15.68 MJ·m −3 , respectively. Moreover, the hydrogel displayed good swelling resistance and stable strain electrical signal response.