Abstract
New technologies rely on the development of new materials, and these may simply be the innovative combination of known components. The structural combination of a polymer hydrogel network with a nanoparticle (metals, non‐metals, metal oxides, and polymeric moieties) holds the promise of providing superior functionality to the composite material with applications in diverse fields, including catalysis, electronics, bio‐sensing, drug delivery, nano‐medicine, and environmental remediation. This mixing may result in a synergistic property enhancement of each component: for example, the mechanical strength of the hydrogel and concomitantly decrease aggregation of the nanoparticles. These mutual benefits and the associated potential applications have seen a surge of interest in the past decade from multi‐disciplinary research groups. Recent advances in nanoparticle–hydrogel composites are herein reviewed with a focus on their synthesis, design, potential applications, and the inherent challenges accompanying these exciting materials.
Highlights
New technologies rely on the development of new materials, and these may reviewed elsewhere.[2]
The hydrogel was polymerized in situ to produce a well-connected three dimensional network structure consisting of Si-NP coated with the conducting polymer
Synthetic methods and strategies and the unique synergistic properties of the composite that is absent in individual components, together with their applications, have been summarized
Summary
The simplest approach to forming a nanoparticle–hydrogel composite is the gelation of a suspension of pre-formed nanoparticles in a hydrogel-forming monomer solution. This approach has been utilized to form optically responsive optomechanical nanoparticle-hydrogel composites.[11] In an example of this approach, S. Ravi et al used this approach to incorporate three different types of nanoparticles: i) proteo-mimetic PAAm nano-gel, ii) bovine serum albumin, and iii) hydrophilized silica (Si), into a hydrogel matrix for intra-ocular lens applications.[12] Other groups have adopted this simple approach to obtain hydrogels containing Au or Si-NPs and thereby prevent aggregation.[13] This approach has certain drawbacks including the leaching of nanoparticles out of the hydrogel matrix if the cross link density is low.[14] An advanced application of an hydrogel-nanoparticle composite using a similar protocol was reported by Liu et al for synthesizing photo-modulable. It was noted that the nanoparticles act as photo-catalysts rather than cross-linking agents and the use of bisfunctional monomer N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAAm) was necessary for the formation of mechanically durable hydrogels
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