Rapid, Tough, and Trigger-Detachable Hydrogel Adhesion Enabled by Formation of Nanoparticles In Situ.

Abstract

Integrating hydrogel with other materials is always challenging due to the low mass content of hydrogels and the abundance of water at the interfaces. Adhesion through nanoparticles offers characteristics such as ease of use, reversibility, and universality, but still grapples with challenges like weak bonding. Here, a simple yet powerful strategy using the formation of nanoparticles in situ is reported, establishing strong interfacial adhesion between various hydrogels and substrates including elastomers, plastics, and biological tissue, even under wet conditions. The strong interfacial bonding can be formed in a short time (60 s), and gradually strengthened to 902 J m-2 adhesion energy within an hour. The interfacial layer's construction involves chain entanglement and other non-covalent interactions like coordination and hydrogen bonding. Unlike the permanent bonding seen in most synthetic adhesives, these nanoparticle adhesives can be efficiently triggered for removal by acidic solutions. The simplicity of the precursor diffusion and precipitation process in creating the interfacial layer ensures broad applicability to different substrates and nanoparticle adhesives without compromising robustness. The tough adhesion provided by nanoparticles allows the hydrogel-elastomer hybrid to function as a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), facilitating reliable electrical signal generation and output performance due to the robust interface.