Abstract
Hydrogels are flexible materials that have high potential for use in various applications due to their unique properties. However, their applications are greatly restricted by the low mechanical performance caused by high water content and inhomogeneous networks. This paper reports a universal strategy for easily preparing hydrogels that are tough and stretchable without any special structures or complicated processes. Our strategy involves tuning the polymerization conditions to form networks with many polymer chain entanglements to achieve energy dissipation. Tough and stretchable hydrogels can be prepared by free radical polymerization with a high monomer concentration and low cross-linker content to optimize the balance between physical and chemical cross-links by entanglements and covalent bonds, respectively. The strategy of using polymer chain entanglements for energy dissipation allows us to overcome the limitation of low mechanical performance, which leads to the wide practical use of hydrogels.
Highlights
Hydrogels are soft materials that consist of physically or chemically cross-linked polymer networks and a large quantity of water
While there have been studies on tough hydrogels that have been designed using unique cross-linkers[9,10,11,17,18], this study demonstrates that tough and stretchable hydrogels can be prepared by conventional free radical polymerization without any special cross-linkers
Standard free radical polymerization results in the formation of an inhomogeneous network structure[30], the as-prepared PAAm hydrogels prepared under polymerization conditions with a high monomer concentration and a low cross-linker content were tougher than the tetra-PEG hydrogel with a homogeneous network structure
Summary
Hydrogels are soft materials that consist of physically or chemically cross-linked polymer networks and a large quantity of water. Hydrogels have a high water content and low elastic modulus (~100 kPa) and exhibit stimulusresponsive behavior, similar to biological tissues; hydrogels have many potential applications as biomaterials for drug delivery systems, biosensors, and cell culture[1,2,3,4,5]. DN hydrogels, During deformation, hydrogels exhibit viscoelastic behavior, which includes both viscous and elastic characteristics[29]. The use of a large amount of chemical cross-linker results in the formation of rigid hydrogel networks in which the elastic characteristic contributes to their mechanical properties more predominantly
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