Designing hydrogels with high mechanical properties without sacrificing their self-healing efficiencies remains great challenges. We have fabricated cationic polyacrylamide/graphene oxide (GO) hydrogels by free-radical polymerization of acrylamide (AM) and 2-(dimethylamino)ethylacrylatemethochloride (DAC) in the presence of GO. The mechanical properties and self-healing ability can be tuned by the GO content and the mass ratio of AM and DAC. The ionic bonds between DAC and GO and the hydrogen bonds between AM and GO can efficiently dissipate energy and rebuild the networks. The resulting composite hydrogels possess high stiffness (Young's modulus: ∼1.1 MPa), high toughness (∼9.3 MJ m), and high fatigue resistance, as well as high self-healing efficiency (>92% of tensile strength, >99% of tensile strain and >93% of toughness). In addition, the completely dried hydrogels can recover their original mechanical values by spraying water and still possess outstanding self-healing efficiency. Our design can provide better fundamental understanding of physical properties of hydrogels and should enable the development of tough, self-healing hydrogels for practical applications.
Polymer hydrogels have attracted much attention due to their mechanical, biological, and physicochemical properties. Incorporation of functional material enlarges their applications. Graphene, as a promising additive, has received great attention due to its large specific surface area, ultrahigh conductivity, strong antioxidant, thermal stability, high thermal conductivity, and good mechanical properties. In this brief review, graphene‐containing polymer hydrogels with special properties are summarized including their preparations, properties, and applications. In addition, future perspectives of polymer hydrogels containing graphene are briefly discussed.
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