Huo Huanxin, Shen Jingjie, Wan Jianyong, Shi Haoran, Yang Hongxing, Duan Xin, Gao Yihong, Chen Yumeng, Kuang Feng, Li Hongshan, Yang Long, Du Guanben
Yunnan Province Key Lab of Wood Adhesives and Glued Products, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, China.
College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 5;16(1):6221. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61535-1.
Tough hydrogels show great potential applied in flexible electronics, sensors and soft robotics, but it remains challenging to combine high strength, toughness and stability. Here, we report the use of carbon dots (CDs) to induce the formation of crystalline domains, to give materials with favourable properties. The CDs act as nanoscale nucleation-sites within polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels, forming dense crystalline domains that serve as physical crosslinking sites. These domains enable a "pinning effect" that enhances energy dissipation and restricts crack propagation. The resulting hydrogels exhibit strong mechanical performance, including tensile strength up to 156 MPa and toughness of 225 MJ m, while also maintaining good swelling resistance. This strategy is generalizable across different types of CDs and polymer systems. In addition, the hydrogels demonstrate stable conductivity under water, making them suitable for applications in underwater motion sensing and flexible supercapacitors. This work provides a scalable approach to engineer robust, multifunctional hydrogels.
坚韧的水凝胶在柔性电子、传感器和软机器人领域具有巨大的应用潜力，但要同时实现高强度、高韧性和稳定性仍具有挑战性。在此，我们报道了利用碳点（CDs）诱导结晶域的形成，从而赋予材料优异的性能。碳点在聚乙烯醇水凝胶中充当纳米级成核位点，形成致密的结晶域，作为物理交联位点。这些域产生一种“钉扎效应”，增强能量耗散并限制裂纹扩展。所得水凝胶表现出强大的力学性能，包括高达156兆帕的拉伸强度和225兆焦每立方米的韧性，同时还保持良好的抗溶胀性。该策略可推广到不同类型的碳点和聚合物体系。此外，水凝胶在水下具有稳定的导电性，使其适用于水下运动传感和柔性超级电容器应用。这项工作提供了一种可扩展的方法来设计坚固的多功能水凝胶。
