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A Facile Strategy for Preparing Tough, Self‐Healing Double‐Network Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels Inspired by Mussel Cuticles
Author(s) -
Guo Zhongwei,
Mi Shengli,
Sun Wei
Publication year - 2019
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.201800715
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , hyaluronic acid , self healing , materials science , toughness , brittleness , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , biomedical engineering , composite material , polymer chemistry , anatomy , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
Compared with hydrogel‐like biological tissues such as cartilage, muscles, and blood vessels, current hyaluronic acid hydrogels often suffer from poor toughness and limited self‐healing properties. Herein, a facile and generalizable strategy inspired by mussel cuticles is presented to fabricate tough and self‐healing double‐network hyaluronic acid hydrogels. These hydrogels are composed of ductile, reversible Fe 3+ ‐catechol interaction primary networks, and secondarily formed brittle, irreversible covalent networks. Based on this design strategy, the hyaluronic acid hydrogels are demonstrated to exhibit reinforced mechanical strength while maintaining a rapid self‐healing property. In addition, by simply regulating pH or UV irradiation time, the mechanical properties of the hydrogels can be regulated conveniently through variations between the primary and secondary networks.