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A Stimuli‐Responsive Hydrogel with Reversible Three‐State Transition Controlled by Redox Stimulation
Author(s) -
Yang Yongqi,
Gao Guanghui
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201700002
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , self healing , self healing material , dithiothreitol , materials science , nanotechnology , redox , chemical engineering , chemistry , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , enzyme , pathology , metallurgy
A great extent of past work has focused on the development of stimuli‐responsive hydrogels that can primarily achieve a two‐state transition, such as sol‐gel translation. In the current work, a reversible hydrogel with three‐state transition is designed. The three transformations between original, oxidized, and reduced states are achieved via controlling the external stimuli conditions. Hydrogels in their original state possess a weak self‐healing property and negligible fluidity. The oxidized state hydrogel can keep molding, however, losing the self‐healing property. In contrast, the reduced state hydrogels exhibit strong self‐healing property. Moreover, the hydrogel becomes injectable subsequent to dithiothreitol addition. Thereafter, under UV‐light irradiation or NaClO immersion, the hydrogels can be remolded to any desired shapes. These properties provide novel designing strategies and potential applications for smart and reusable materials.