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Gold nanorods crosslinking PNIPAM hydrogels via dynamic Au-thiolate interaction with stretchable, adhesive, self-healing, and photothermal properties

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Abstract

Gold nanorod (AuNR) nanocomposite hydrogels have attracted increasing attention due to the photothermal effect of AuNRs. However, a facile strategy that avoids multi-step surface modification for synthesis of AuNR crosslinkers is still a critical challenge. Here, AuNRs crosslinking PNIPAM hydrogels were prepared by polymerization of NIPAM with N,N′-bis(acryloyl)cystamine (BACA)-modified AuNRs as crosslinkers. BACA contains a disulfide bond in the structure. Dynamic and reversible Au-thiolate bonding was formed by directly mixing AuNRs and BACA to facilely prepare AuNR crosslinkers before hydrogel formation. The addition of AuNRs gives hydrogels their photothermal effect and remarkable mechanical behaviors. Hydrogels could repeatedly adhere to the surface of pigskin, metal, plastic, and glass with a relatively stable adhesion. The damaged hydrogels heal within 2 min with near-infrared (NIR) laser (808 nm, 300 mW∙cm−2) irradiation. This work provides a line of thinking for improvement of PNIPAM hydrogels, making them promising for further applications in biomedicine.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51703209).

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Author notes

  1. Shijun Lin and Sirui Jiang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Shijun Lin, Sirui Jiang, Yuchen Zhang, Zhengwei Dai, Yu Dai, Fan Xia & Xiaojin Zhang

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  1. Shijun Lin
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  2. Sirui Jiang
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  3. Yuchen Zhang
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  4. Zhengwei Dai
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  5. Yu Dai
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  6. Fan Xia
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  7. Xiaojin Zhang
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Correspondence to Xiaojin Zhang.

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Lin, S., Jiang, S., Zhang, Y. et al. Gold nanorods crosslinking PNIPAM hydrogels via dynamic Au-thiolate interaction with stretchable, adhesive, self-healing, and photothermal properties. Gold Bull 54, 59–67 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13404-021-00293-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13404-021-00293-6

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