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Thermal/Light Dual‐Activated Shape Memory Hydrogels Composed of an Agarose/Poly(acrylamide‐ co ‐acrylic acid) Interpenetrating Network
Author(s) -
Peng Kang,
Yang Kaixiang,
Fan Yujiao,
Yasin Akram,
Hao Xiang,
Yang Haiyang
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.201700170
Subject(s) - acrylic acid , self healing hydrogels , agarose , acrylamide , polymer chemistry , materials science , interpenetrating polymer network , photopolymer , chemical engineering , copolymer , polymer , chemistry , polymerization , composite material , chromatography , engineering
In this work, an agarose/poly(acrylamide‐ co ‐acrylic acid) interpenetrating network hydrogel is prepared by the photopolymerization of acrylamide, acrylic acid, and N , N ′‐methylenebisacrylamide within agarose network at its gel state. The as‐prepared hydrogel exhibits two independent kinds of shape memory effects. The thermal‐activated shape memory behavior is attributed to the reversible coil‐helix transformation of agarose, within the permanently cross‐linked poly(acrylamide‐ co ‐acrylic acid) network; the light triggered shape recovery is driven by the dissociation of the complexes between carboxyl groups and Fe(III) ions, due to the photoreduction of Fe(III) to Fe(II) in the presence of citric acid. The versatile and simple strategy as presented here should be beneficial for the design of dual‐activated shape memory hydrogels and foster their use in a number of fields such as biomaterials, soft robotics, smart actuators, and sensors.