Robust self-healing hydrogels assisted by cross-linked nanofiber networks.

Given increasing environmental and energy issues, mimicking nature to confer synthetic materials with self-healing property to expand their lifespan is highly desirable. Just like human skin recovers itself upon damage with the aid of nutrient-laden blood vascularization, designing smart materials with microvascular network to accelerate self-healing is workable but continues to be a challenge. Here we report a new strategy to prepare robust self-healing hydrogels assisted by a healing layer composed of electrospun cross-linked nanofiber networks containing redox agents. The hydrogels process high healing rate ranging from seconds to days and great mechanical strengths with storage modulus up to 0.1 MPa. More interestingly, when the healing layer is embedded into the crack of the hydrogel, accelerated self-healing is observed and the healing efficiency is about 80%. The healing layer encourages molecular diffusion as well as further cross-linking in the crack region of the hydrogel, responsible for enhanced healing efficiency.