Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Dalian University, Dalian 116622, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Jun 3;12(22):25316-25323. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c05406. Epub 2020 May 18.
Hydrogels, as a representative of soft and biocompatible materials, have been widely used in biosensors, biomedical devices, soft robotics, and the marine industry. However, the ir-recoverability of hydrogels after dehydration, which causes the loss of original mechanical, optical, and wetting properties, has severely restricted their practical applications. At present, this critical challenge of maintaining hydrogels' accurate character has attracted less attention. To address this, here we report a hydrogel based on synergistic effects to achieve both well-regulated rehydration and deswelling properties. The hydrogel after dehydration can quickly restore its original state both on the macro- and microscale. In addition, the hydrogel has excellent mechanical stability after several dehydration-rehydration cycles. All of these properties offer a possibility of water condition endurance and increase the service life. The robust property is attributed to the hydrophilic-hydrophobic and ionic interactions induced by the synergy of hydrophilic/oleophilic heteronetworks. Moreover, zwitterionic segments as hydrophilic network play a vital role in fabricating anti-biofouling hydrogels. The durable and reusable hydrogel may have promising applications for biomedical materials, flexible devices, and the marine industry.
水凝胶作为软质和生物相容材料的代表，已广泛应用于生物传感器、生物医学设备、软体机器人和海洋工业。然而，水凝胶在脱水后不可恢复，导致其原始机械、光学和润湿性等性能丧失，严重限制了其实际应用。目前，保持水凝胶准确特性的这一关键挑战尚未得到充分关注。针对这一问题，我们在这里报告了一种基于协同效应的水凝胶，以实现良好的调控再水合和溶胀性能。脱水后的水凝胶可以在宏观和微观尺度上迅速恢复其原始状态。此外，水凝胶在经过多次脱水-再水合循环后仍具有优异的机械稳定性。所有这些特性都提供了耐水条件的可能性，并增加了使用寿命。这种稳健的特性归因于亲水性/疏水性杂化网络协同作用产生的亲水性-疏水性和离子相互作用。此外，两性离子段作为亲水性网络在制备抗生物污染水凝胶方面发挥了重要作用。这种耐用且可重复使用的水凝胶可能在生物医学材料、柔性器件和海洋工业中有广阔的应用前景。
