Borax-PVA hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties are prepared by simple physical mixing of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, thickener) and borax (cross-linking agent) at room temperature. The resulting hydrogel is a three-dimensional structure composed of boric ester bonds as physical crosslinking points. Thus, the spatial structure, swelling properties, viscoelastic properties, tensile properties, and self-healing properties of hydrogels with different ratios of borax and PVA are studied. XRD confirmed that the hydrogels have similar structures near 2θ values of 10 and 20. The microstructure of the hydrogel is confirmed by SEM and TEM. With an increase of borax mass fraction, the pore structure and morphology of hydrogel are more ordered, with substantial quantities of water immobilized within their three-dimensional structure. The viscoelastic properties and tensile properties showed that when the mass fraction of borax is 5%, the storage modulus and compressive stress of the hydrogel are the highest, reaching 100 Pa and 5.6 kPa, respectively. In addition, through physical and chemical stimulation (heating and varying pH, respectively), the hydrogels also showed reversible gel–sol conversion characteristics, indicating that the boric ester bonds have self-healing properties.

具有优异机械性能的硼砂-PVA水凝胶是通过聚乙烯醇（PVA，增稠剂）和硼砂（交联剂）在室温下简单物理混合制备的。得到的水凝胶是由硼酸酯键作为物理交联点组成的三维结构。因此，研究了不同硼砂和 PVA 比例的水凝胶的空间结构、膨胀性能、粘弹性能、拉伸性能和自愈合性能。XRD 证实水凝胶在 2 θ附近具有相似的结构值分别为 10 和 20。水凝胶的微观结构由 SEM 和 TEM 证实。随着硼砂质量分数的增加，水凝胶的孔结构和形态更加有序，大量的水固定在其三维结构中。粘弹性和拉伸性能表明，当硼砂的质量分数为 5% 时，水凝胶的储能模量和压缩应力最高，分别达到 100 Pa 和 5.6 kPa。此外，通过物理和化学刺激（分别加热和改变 pH 值），水凝胶还表现出可逆的凝胶-溶胶转化特性，表明硼酸酯键具有自修复特性。