Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China.
Soft Matter. 2017 Feb 15;13(7):1357-1363. doi: 10.1039/c6sm02739c.
In this study, a novel strategy was designed to prepare rapidly recoverable, anti-fatigue, super-tough double-network hydrogels by introducing macromolecular microspheres (MMs) as cross-linking centers for hydrophobic associations. MMs were prepared via emulsion polymerization using butyl acrylate (BA) as a main component and dicyclopentyl acrylate (DCPA) as a cross-linker. Then, a double-network (DN) hydrogel was prepared using gelatin as the first network and a copolymer of acrylamide and hexadecyl methacrylate stabilized by MMs as the second network. As a result, the DN hydrogels that were toughened by MMs exhibited an excellent fracture strength of 1.48 MPa and a fracture strain of 2100%. Moreover, the hydrogels exhibited rapid recoverability and fatigue resistance. Therefore, the strategy would open up a novel avenue for the toughening of DN hydrogels for biomedical applications.
在这项研究中，设计了一种新策略，通过引入大分子微球（MMs）作为疏水缔合的交联中心，来制备快速恢复、抗疲劳、超韧的双网络水凝胶。MMs 通过乳液聚合制备，以丙烯酸丁酯（BA）为主要成分，双环戊烯基丙烯酸酯（DCPA）为交联剂。然后，以明胶为第一网络，以由 MMs 稳定的丙烯酰胺和十六烷基甲基丙烯酸酯的共聚物为第二网络，制备双网络（DN）水凝胶。结果表明，由 MMs 增韧的 DN 水凝胶具有优异的断裂强度 1.48 MPa 和断裂应变 2100%。此外，水凝胶还表现出快速恢复性和抗疲劳性。因此，该策略为用于生物医学应用的 DN 水凝胶的增韧开辟了一条新途径。
