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Highly Mechanical and Fatigue‐Resistant Double Network Hydrogels by Dual Physically Hydrophobic Association and Ionic Crosslinking
Author(s) -
Zhang Baoyuan,
Gao Zijian,
Gao Guanghui,
Zhao Wei,
Li Jiasheng,
Ren Xiuyan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.201800072
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , materials science , ionic bonding , toughness , composite material , polyacrylamide , fracture toughness , elastic modulus , dual (grammatical number) , modulus , stress (linguistics) , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , ion , chemistry , organic chemistry , art , literature , engineering , linguistics , philosophy
Abstract Double network (DN) hydrogels with high strength and toughness are considered as promising soft materials. Herein, a dual physically cross‐linked hydrophobic association polyacrylamide (HPAAm)/alginate‐Ca 2+ DN hydrogel is reported, consisting of a HPAAm network and a Ca 2+ cross‐linked alginate network. The HPAAm/alginate‐Ca 2+ DN hydrogel exhibits excellent mechanical properties with the fracture stress of 1.16 MPa (3.0 and 1.7 times higher than that of HPAAm hydrogel and HPAAm/alginate hydrogel, respectively), fracture strain of 2604%, elastic modulus of 71.79 kPa, and toughness of 14.20 MJ m −3 . HPAAm/alginate‐Ca 2+ DN hydrogels also demonstrate self‐recovery, notch‐insensitivity, and fatigue resistance properties without any external stimuli at room temperature through reversible physical bonds consisting of hydrophobic association and ionic crosslinking. As a result, the dual physical crosslinking would offer an avenue to design DN hydrogels with desirable properties for broadening current applications of soft materials.