Zhao Zhi, Li Yurong, Wang Haibin, Shan Yupeng, Liu Xuemei, Wu Mengfei, Zhang Xinping, Song Xiaoyan
Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Education Ministry of China, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China.
Institute of Information Photonics Technology, Faculty of Science, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023 Sep;10(27):e2303315. doi: 10.1002/advs.202303315. Epub 2023 Jul 28.
Owing to high water content and homogeneous texture, conventional hydrogels hardly reach satisfactory mechanical performance. Tensile-resistant groups and structural heterogeneity are employed to fabricate tough hydrogels. However, those techniques significantly increase the complexity and cost of material synthesis, and have only limited applicability. Here, it is shown that ultra-tough hydrogels can be obtained via a unique hierarchical architecture composed of chemically coupled self-assembly units. The associative energy dissipation among them may be rationally engineered to yield libraries of tough gels with self-healing capability. Tunable tensile strength, fracture strain, and toughness of up to 19.6 MPa, 20 000%, and 135.7 MJ cm⁻ are achieved, all of which exceed the best known records. The results demonstrate a universal strategy to prepare desired ultra-tough hydrogels in predictable and controllable manners.
由于高含水量和均匀的质地，传统水凝胶很难达到令人满意的机械性能。人们采用抗拉伸基团和结构异质性来制备坚韧的水凝胶。然而，这些技术显著增加了材料合成的复杂性和成本，并且适用性有限。在此，研究表明，通过由化学偶联的自组装单元组成的独特分级结构可以获得超坚韧水凝胶。可以合理设计它们之间的缔合能量耗散，以产生具有自愈能力的坚韧凝胶库。实现了高达19.6兆帕、20000%和135.7兆焦每立方米的可调拉伸强度、断裂应变和韧性，所有这些都超过了已知的最佳记录。结果展示了一种以可预测和可控方式制备所需超坚韧水凝胶的通用策略。
