Hydrophilic polymers, or hydrogels, are used for a wide variety of biomedical applications, due to their inherent ability to withhold a high-water content. In recent years, a large effort has been focused on tailoring the mechanical properties of these hydrogels to become more appropriate materials for use as anatomical and physiological structural supports. A few of these such methods include using diverse types of polymers, both natural and synthetic, varying the type of molecular cross-linking, as well as combining these efforts to form interpenetrating polymer network hydrogels. While multiple research groups have characterized these various hydrogels under quasi-static conditions, their dynamic properties, representative of native physiological loading scenarios, have been scarcely reported. In this study, an E-glass fiber reinforced family of alginate/PAAm hydrogels cross-linked by both divalent and trivalent cations are fabricated and investigated. The effect of the reinforcement phase on the dynamic and hydration behaviors is then explicated. Additionally, a micromechanics framework for short cylindrical chopped fibers is utilized to discern the contribution of the matrix and fiber constituents on the hydrogel composite. The addition of E-glass fibers resulted in the storage modulus exhibiting a ~50%, 5%, and ~120%, increase with a mere addition of 2 wt% of the reinforcing fibers to Na-, Sr-, and Al-alginate/PAAm, respectively. In studying the cross-linking effect of various divalent (Ba, Ca, Sr) and trivalent (Al, Fe) cations, it was noteworthy that the hydrogels were found to be effective in dissipating energy while resisting mechanical deformation when they are cross-linked with higher molecular weight elements, regardless of valency. This report on the dynamic properties of these hydrogels will help to improve their optimization for future use in biomedical load-bearing applications.

亲水性聚合物或水凝胶由于其固有的保持高水分含量的能力而被用于多种生物医学应用。近年来，大量的努力集中在调整这些水凝胶的机械性能，以使其成为更适合用作解剖学和生理学结构支持物的材料。这些方法中的一些方法包括使用天然和合成的多种类型的聚合物，改变分子交联的类型，以及将这些努力结合起来以形成互穿的聚合物网络水凝胶。尽管多个研究小组已在准静态条件下表征了这些各种水凝胶，但几乎没有报道它们的动态特性（代表天然生理负荷情况）。在这项研究中，制备并研究了由二价和三价阳离子交联的E-玻璃纤维增​​强的藻酸盐/ PAAm水凝胶家族。然后阐述了增强相对动态和水化行为的影响。另外，利用短圆柱短切纤维的微力学框架来辨别基质和纤维成分对水凝胶复合材料的贡献。仅添加2 wt％的增强纤维到Na-，Sr-和Al-海藻酸盐中，添加E-玻璃纤维会导致储能模量表现出〜50％，5％和〜120％的增加。 / PAAm。在研究各种二价（Ba，Ca，Sr）和三价（Al，Fe）阳离子的交联作用时，值得注意的是，发现当水凝胶与较高分子量的元素交联时，无论其价数如何，水凝胶都能有效地消散能量，同时抵抗机械变形。这份有关这些水凝胶动态特性的报告将有助于改善其优化性，以供将来在生物医学承重应用中使用。