Han Zilong, Wang Peng, Lu Yuchen, Jia Zheng, Qu Shaoxing, Yang Wei
State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power & Mechatronic System, Key Laboratory of Soft Machines and Smart Devices of Zhejiang Province, Center for X-Mechanics, and Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Sci Adv. 2022 Feb 25;8(8):eabl5066. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abl5066. Epub 2022 Feb 23.
Hydrogen bond engineering is widely exploited to impart stretchability, toughness, and self-healing capability to hydrogels. However, the enhancement effect of conventional hydrogen bonds is severely limited by their weak interaction strength. In nature, some organisms tolerate extreme conditions due to the strong hydrogen bond interactions induced by trehalose. Here, we report a trehalose network-repairing strategy achieved by the covalent-like hydrogen bonding interactions to improve the hydrogels' mechanical properties while simultaneously enabling them to tolerate extreme environmental conditions and retain synthetic simplicity, which proves to be useful for various kinds of hydrogels. The mechanical properties of trehalose-modified hydrogels including strength, stretchability, and fracture toughness are substantially enhanced under a wide range of temperatures. After dehydration, the modified hydrogels maintain their hyperelasticity and functions, while the unmodified hydrogels collapse. This strategy provides a versatile methodology for synthesizing extremotolerant, highly stretchable, and tough hydrogels, which expand their potential applications to various conditions.
氢键工程被广泛用于赋予水凝胶拉伸性、韧性和自愈能力。然而，传统氢键的增强效果因其较弱的相互作用强度而受到严重限制。在自然界中，一些生物由于海藻糖诱导的强氢键相互作用而能够耐受极端条件。在此，我们报道了一种通过类共价氢键相互作用实现的海藻糖网络修复策略，以改善水凝胶的机械性能，同时使其能够耐受极端环境条件并保持合成的简易性，这被证明对各种水凝胶都有用。在广泛的温度范围内，海藻糖改性水凝胶的机械性能，包括强度、拉伸性和断裂韧性都得到了显著增强。脱水后，改性水凝胶保持其超弹性和功能，而未改性水凝胶则会塌陷。该策略为合成耐极端环境、高拉伸性和韧性的水凝胶提供了一种通用方法，拓展了它们在各种条件下的潜在应用。
