Science Advances
·
2019
·Vol. 5
·期 2
·
IF 12.804
Liju Xu,Chen Wang,Yang Cui,Ailing Li,Yan Qiao,Dong Qiu
Hydrogels from biological sources are expected as potential structural biomaterials, but most of them are either soft or fragile. Here, a new strategy was developed to construct hydrogels that were both stiff and tough via the formation of the conjoined-network, which was distinct from improving homogeneity or incorporating energy dissipation mechanisms (double-network) approaches. Conjoined-network hydrogels stand for a class of hydrogels consisting of two or more networks that are connected by sharing interconnection points to collaborate and featured as follows: (i) All the composed networks had a similar or equal energy dissipation mechanism, and (ii) these networks were intertwined to effectively distribute stress in the whole system. As a specific example, a biogenic conjoined-network hydrogel was prepared by electrostatically cross-linking the chitosan-gelatin composite with multivalent sodium phytate. The combination of high compressive modulus and toughness was realized at the same time in the chitosan-gelatin-phytate system. Moreover, these physical hydrogels exhibited extraordinary self-recovery and fatigue resistance ability. Our results provide a general strategy for the design of biocompatible stiff and tough conjoined-network hydrogels due to a variety of potential cross-linking mechanisms available (e.g., electrostatic attraction, host-guest interaction, and hydrogen bonding).
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物医学工程
·
高分子科学
·
生物材料
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
Nature Communications
·
2024
·Vol. 15
·期 1
·1-12
·
IF 14.7
Zhong Danming,Wang Zhicheng,Xu Junwei,Liu Junjie,Xiao Rui,Qu Shaoxing,Yang Wei
Outstanding overall mechanical properties are essential for the successful utilization of hydrogels in advanced applications such as human-machine interfaces and soft robotics. However, conventional hydrogels suffer from fracture toughness-stiffness conflict and fatigue threshold-stiffness conflict, limiting their applicability. Simultaneously enhancing the fracture toughness, fatigue threshold, and stiffness of hydrogels, especially within a homogeneous single network structure, has proven to be a formidable challenge. In this work, we overcome this challenge through the design of a loosely cross-linked hydrogel with slight dehydration. Experimental results reveal that the slightly-dehydrated, loosely cross-linked polyacrylamide hydrogel, with an original/current water content of 87%/70%, exhibits improved mechanical properties, which is primarily attributed to the synergy between the long-chain structure and the dense dehydration-induced entanglements. Importantly, the creation of these microstructures does not require intricate design or processing. This simple approach holds significant potential for hydrogel applications where excellent anti-fracture and fatigue-resistant properties are necessary.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
机械工程
·
软体机器人
·
人机界面
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Nature Communications
·
2022
·Vol. 13
·期 1
·1-11
·
IF 17.694
Liu Yuncong,Chen Tao,Jin Zhekai,Li Mengxue,Zhang Dongdong,Duan Lian,Zhao Zhiguo,Wang Chao
Gelatinous underwater invertebrates such as jellyfish have organs that are transparent, luminescent and self-healing, which allow the creatures to navigate, camouflage themselves and, indeed, survive in aquatic environments. Artificial luminescent materials that can mimic such functionality can be used to develop aquatic wearable/stretchable displays and water-resistant devices. Here, a luminescent composite that is simultaneously transparent, tough and can autonomously self-heal in both dry and wet conditions is reported. A tough, self-healable fluorine elastomer with dipole–dipole interactions is synthesized as the polymer matrix. It exhibits excellent compatibility with metal halide perovskite quantum dots. The composite possesses a toughness of 19 MJ m −3 , maximum strain of 1300% and capability to autonomously self-heal underwater. Notably, the material can withstand extremely harsh aqueous conditions, such as highly salty, acidic (pH = 1) and basic (pH = 13) environment for more than several months with almost no decay in mechanical performance or optical properties.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
聚合物科学
·
纳米技术
·
光电子学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Nature Communications
·
2023
·Vol. 14
·期 1
·1-11
·
IF 16.6
Li Lishan,Yang Guandu,Lyu Jing,Sheng Zhizhi,Ma Fengguo,Zhang Xuetong
Aerogels, as famous lightweight and porous nanomaterials, have attracted considerable attention in various emerging fields in recent decades, however, both low density and weak mechanical performance make their configuration-editing capability challenging. Inspired by folk arts, herein we establish a highly efficient twice-coagulated (TC) strategy to fabricate configuration-editable tough aerogels enabled by transformable gel precursors. As a proof of concept, aramid nanofibers (ANFs) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are selected as the main components of aerogel, among which PVA forms a flexible configuration-editing gel network in the first coagulation process, and ANF forms a configuration-locking gel network in the second coagulation process. TC strategy guarantees the resulting aerogels with both high toughness and feasible configuration editing capability individually or simultaneously. Altogether, the resulting tough aerogels with special configuration through soft to hard modulation provide great opportunities to break through the performance limits of the aerogels and expand application areas of aerogels.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
纳米技术
·
化学工程
·
先进制造
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
·
2024
·
IF 8.3
Yindong Xu,Keyong Sun,Lingyi Huang,Yu Dai,Xiaojin Zhang,Fan Xia
Janus hydrogels with different properties on the two surfaces have considerable potential in the field of material engineering applications. Various Janus hydrogels have been developed, but there are still some problems, such as stress mismatch caused by the double-layer structure and Janus failure caused by material diffusion in the gradient structure. Here, we report a Janus adhesive-tough hydrogel with polydopamine-decorated Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4@PDA) at one side induced by magnetic field to avoid uncontrollable material diffusion in the cross-linking polymerization of acrylamide with alginate-calcium. The magneto-induced Janus (MIJ) hydrogel has an adhesive surface and a tough bulk without an obvious interface to avoid stress mismatch. Due to the intrinsic dissipative matrix and the abundant catechol groups on the adhesive surface, it shows strong adhesion onto various substrates. The MIJ hydrogel has high sensitivity (GF = 0.842) in detecting tiny human motion. Owing to the synergy of Fe3O4@PDA-enhanced interfacial adhesion and heat transfer, it is possible to quickly generate effective temperature differences when adhering to human skin. The MIJ hydrogel achieves a Seebeck coefficient of 13.01 mV·K–1 and an output power of 462.02 mW·m–2 at a 20 K temperature difference. This work proposes a novel strategy to construct Janus hydrogels for flexible wearable devices in human motion sensing and low-grade heat harvesting.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物医学工程
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能量收集
·
可穿戴设备
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Soft Matter
·
2024
·
IF 2.9
Xuefeng Yan,Yong Chen,Jun Tan,Cailiang Zhang,Zeming Xie,Si Yu Zheng,Qi Wang,Zhijun Zhou,Jintao Yang
Developing tough and conductive materials is crucial for the fields of wearable devices. However, soft materials like polyurethane (PU) are usually non-conductive, whereas conductive materials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are usually brittle. Besides, their composites usually face poor interfacial interactions, leading to a decline in performance in practical use. Here, we develop a stretchable PU/CNTs composite foam for use as a strain sensor. A cationic chain extender is incorporated to afford PU cationic groups and to regulate its mechanical properties, whose tensile strength is up to 12.30 MPa and breaking strain exceeds 1000%, and which shows considerable adhesion capability. Furthermore, porous PU foam is prepared via a salt-templating method and carboxylic CNTs with negative groups are loaded to afford the foam conductivity. The obtained foam shows high sensitivity to small strain (GF = 5.2) and exhibits outstanding long-term cycling performance, which is then used for diverse motion detection. The strategy illustrated here should provide new insights into the design of highly efficient PU-based sensors.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
可穿戴技术
·
传感器
·
聚合物化学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2025
·
IF 19
Yan Zhang,Xiaowei Chen,Wei Li,Baoyi Wang,Qian Zhang,Zhuo Zhao,Yafei Wang,Ying Guan,Yongjun Zhang
The freezing of the dispersion medium causes a huge deterioration in mechanical performance, conductivity, and optical properties of gel materials, limiting their functionality in low-temperature environments such as outer space, deep sea, and polar areas. Here, a deep eutectic solvent is developed using 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol as a hydrogen bond donor and choline chloride as a hydrogen bond acceptor, achieving remarkably low freezing temperature of −107.7 °C, while also exhibiting transparency, stability, and ionic conductive capabilities across a broad temperature range. Utilizing this solvent as a dispersion medium, microphase-separated eutectogels are prepared via the copolymerization of acrylamide and acrylic acid. Retaining its stretchability, high toughness, and energy dissipation capability at −100 °C, the gel thereby serves as an exceptional materials for impact resistance, vibration damping, and temperature sensing. Finally, the development of 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol based solvent and gel materials is expected to offer a new solution for cryo-science and antifreeze applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
高分子化学
·
软物质物理
·
低温化学
·
机械工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
·
2020
·
IF 3.573
Jun-Bo Hou,Zhi-Hui Chen,Shao-Xia Zhang,Zi-Jun Nie,Shu-Ting Fan,Hao-Ran Shu,Sheng Zhang,Bang-Jing Li,Ya Cao
Tough self-healing elastomers with excellent comprehensive performance are extremely demanding and fascinating for future product development, such as wearable devices and robots. However, the deformation of conventional elastomers is dependent on the cross-link density, and there is a trade-off between toughness and stretchability. Therefore, it is a challenge to solve the contradiction between toughness and stiffness. Here, we prepared a tough and stiff rotaxane cross-linked (RC) elastomer with a self-healing property by a one-pot rotaxa-polymerization method in which inclusion complexes of β-CD-trimer@isoprene were copolymerized with isoprene monomers and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) monomers. The rigid β-CD-trimers not only form intermolecular hydrogen bonds with the HEA chains but also can move along the PI segments, leading to good comprehensive mechanical properties. This one-pot synthesis of RC elastomers is facile, and the material simultaneously has good stiffness and toughness. The fracture energy and Young’s modulus materials could reach 43.40 MJ/m3 and 1.40 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, the PI-PHEA RC elastomer showed self-healing ability due to a large amount of hydrogen bonds (PI stands for polyisoprene). The self-healing efficiency can reach 84.34% at 60 °C.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
高分子化学
·
机械工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
·
2021
·Vol. 9
·期 44
·9183-9190
·
IF 6.331
Jingda Tang,Bonan Sun,Qianfeng Yin,Meng Yang,Jian Hu,Tiejun Wang
Magnetic hydrogels have demonstrated great potential in soft robots, drug delivery, and bioengineering, and their functions are usually determined by the deforming capability. However, most magnetic hydrogels are embedded with soft magnetic particles (e.g. Fe3O4), where the magnetic domains cannot be programmed and retained under external magnetic fields. Here, we present a strategy to prepare a microgel-reinforced magnetic hydrogel, embedded with hard magnetic NdFeB particles. These magnetic hydrogels show outstanding mechanical properties (ultimate stretching ratio >15 and fracture toughness >15 000 J m−2) and fast actuation speed under external magnetic fields. We use direct ink writing to fabricate magnetic hydrogels with sophisticated geometry and program their magnetization to achieve complex deformations. Fast, reversible, shape-changing structures have been demonstrated with printed magnetic hydrogels. It is hoped that this material system of hard magnetic hydrogels can open opportunities for wide applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
机器人技术
·
生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
KEY ENGINEERING MATERIALS
·
2017
·
IF 0
Xi De Xu,Jie Liu,You Ping Wu,Jian Ping Deng
Novel biocompatible tough hydrogels were prepared through free radical micellar polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) with ammonium persulphate (APS) as initiator, in which hydrophobic monomer stearyl acrylate (C18) underwent micellar polymerization in the presence of gelatin as emulsifier. FT-IR and DSC demonstrated the formation of co-polymer of NIPAM and C18. Swelling results indicated that hydrophobic polymer domains derived from C18 in aqueous medium acted as the physical crosslinking points by hydrophobic association. Uniaxial tensile test demonstrated the mechanical properties of hydrogels increased with increasing C18 and gelatin contents. The hydrogel exhibited low toxicity and promoted cell proliferation. The desirable toughness, low toxicity and the promoting effect of cell proliferation made the present hydrogels good candidates for tissue regeneration materials.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物材料
·
组织工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
NEW JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY
·
2019
·Vol. 43
·期 7
·3099-3110
·
IF 3.069
Dechao Fan,Wenxiang Wang,Hou Chen,Liangjiu Bai,Huawei Yang,Donglei Wei,Lixia Yang,Zhongxin Xue,Yuzhong Niu
Hydrogels with the properties of self-healing, toughness, stiffness and strength have great potential for use in smart materials. Herein, self-healing and tough hydrogels were successfully prepared after adding modified graphene oxide (GO) composites, which grafted the functional polymers onto the surface of GO. GO@polyacrylonitrile (GO@PAN) was synthesized via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) using GO@BiBB as the ATRP initiator. The nitrile group on GO@PAN was converted to pyridine, for which 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium tetrafluoroborate (TPPT) was used as the photocatalyst. The prepared GO composite was added into polyacrylic acid (PAA) hydrogels formed by in situ radical polymerization. These tough hydrogels not only have high mechanical strength, but also show excellent self-healing performance. This strategy can provide a novel and universal route for the fabrication of smart hydrogels in biomedical and engineering fields.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
高分子化学
·
生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Applied Materials Today
·
2018
·
IF 0
Feifei Zhou,Yi Hong,Xianzhu Zhang,Long Yang,Jun Li,Deming Jiang,Varitsara Bunpetch,Yejun Hu,Hongwei Ouyang,Shufang Zhang
Articular cartilage repair still remains a major challenge in today's clinical practice due to its poor self-healing capacity. Therefore, it is essential to develop a promising strategy to achieve a one-step cartilage repair for patients suffering from joint diseases and traumas. Inspired by the complex composition and microscopic architecture of native articular cartilage, an injectable hydrogel (M-O-G) with tough mechanical property and strong tissue adhesiveness is developed. All hydrogel material compositions are natural polymers or their derivatives resemble the normal cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM). This hydrogel showed superior tunable mechanical properties (mechanical strength ≈270 kPa, compressibility ≈70%) and rapid recovery ability. Moreover, it exhibited strong adhesiveness and enhanced integration with tissues. Further studies demonstrated that the hydrogel had good biocompatibility and superior performance in cartilage defect regeneration. Thus, the presented hydrogel is a promising biomaterial for clinical cartilage regeneration and other biomedical applications.
研究领域:
生物材料
·
组织工程
·
再生医学
·
骨科
✓ 已验证
DOI
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）