Abstract
Based on the good self-healing ability to repair mechanical damage, self-healing hydrogels have aroused great interest and been extensively applied as functional materials. However, when partial failure of hydrogels caused by breaking or dryness occurs, leading to recycling problems, self-healing hydrogels cannot solve the mentioned defects and have to be abandoned. In this work, a novel recyclable and self-healing natural polymer hydrogel (Chitosan/polymethylacrylic acid-: CMA) was prepared. The CMA hydrogel not only exhibited controlled mechanical properties from 26 kPa to 125 kPa with tensile strain from 1357% to 3012%, but also had good water retaining property, stability and fast self-healing properties in 1 min. More importantly, the CMA hydrogel displayed attractive powder self-healing performance. After drying–powdering treatment, the mentioned abandoned hydrogels could easily rebuild their frame structure to recover their original state and performance in 1 min only by adding a small amount of water, which could significantly prolong their service life. These advantages guarantee the hydrogel can effectively defend against reversible mechanical damage, water loss and partial hydrogel failure, suggesting great potential applications as a recyclable functional hydrogel for biomaterials and electronic materials.
Highlights
Based on the natural frame structure of Chitosan (CS) and functional monomer-methacrylic acid (MA), CMA hydrogels were synthesized through free radical polymerization by reversible hydrogen bonds with 3D network structures
The chemical structure displayed by the CMA hydrogels was analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
The mentioned results demonstrate the successful preparation of the CMA hydrogels
Summary
Hydrogels are water-swollen polymeric materials displaying good hydrophilic threedimensional (3D) networks by chemical or physical crossing links [1,2,3]. Owing to their peculiar structure, hydrogels exhibits characteristic properties [4,5,6], (e.g., high softness, hydrophilic nature, insolubility, swelling behavior and sensitivity to physiological environment). Due to the lack of effective recycling strategies, the abandoned materials cause serious waste and environment pollution [15,16]. A novel recyclable hydrogel with good performance should be developed
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