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Facile preparation of low swelling, high strength, self-healing and pH-responsive hydrogels based on the triple-network structure

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Abstract

A polyacrylic acid (PAA)/gelatin (Gela)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel was prepared by copolymerization, cooling, and freezing/thawing methods. This triple-network (TN) structure hydrogel displayed superior mechanical properties, low swelling ratio and self-healing properties. The superior mechanical properties are attributed to the triple helix association of Gela and PVA crystallites by reversible hydrogen bonding. The characterization results indicated that the fracture stress and the strain were 808 kPa and 370% respectively, while the compression strength could reach 4443 kPa and the compressive modulus was up to 39 MPa under the deformation of 90%. The hydrogen bonding in PVA contributed to maintain and improve the self-healing ability of hydrogels. Every type of hydrogels exhibited a higher swelling ratio under alkaline conditions, and the swelling ratios of PAA, PAA/PVA and PAA/Gela hydrogels were 27.71, 12.30 and 9.09, respectively. The PAA/Gela/PVA TN hydrogel showed the lowest swelling ratio (6.57) among these hydrogels. These results indicate that the novel TN hydrogels possess good environmental adaptability and have potential applications in the biomedical engineering and sensor field.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51662036 and 21467024) and the Graduate Student Scientific Research Innovation Projects in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China (XJGRI2017046).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University/Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan/Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region/Engineering Research Center of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, Shihezi, 832003, China

    Zhicun Wang, Xiaoman Han, Yixi Wang, Jianning Wu, Guihua Meng, Zhiyong Liu & Xuhong Guo

  2. Bingtuan Sishi Hospital, Yili, 835000, China

    Kenan Men

  3. School of Medicine, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003, China

    Lin Cui

  4. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Xuhong Guo

Authors
  1. Zhicun Wang
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  2. Xiaoman Han
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  3. Yixi Wang
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  4. Kenan Men
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  5. Lin Cui
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  6. Jianning Wu
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  7. Guihua Meng
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  8. Zhiyong Liu
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  9. Xuhong Guo
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Lin Cui or Zhiyong Liu.

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Wang, Z., Han, X., Wang, Y. et al. Facile preparation of low swelling, high strength, self-healing and pH-responsive hydrogels based on the triple-network structure. Front. Mater. Sci. 13, 54–63 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-019-0450-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-019-0450-7

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