Tough hydrogels that are capable of efficient mechanical energy dissipation and withstanding large strains have potential applications in diverse areas. However, most reported fabrication strategies are performed in multiple steps with long-time UV irradiation or heating at high temperatures, limiting their biological and industrial applications. Hydrogels formed with a single pair of mechanisms are unstable in harsh conditions. Here we report a one-step, biocompatible, straightforward and general strategy to prepare tough soft hydrogels in a few tens of seconds under mild conditions. With a multimechanism design, the network structures remarkably improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels and maintain their high toughness in various environments. The broad compatibility of the proposed method with a spectrum of printing technologies makes it suitable for potential applications requiring high-resolution patterns/structures. This strategy opens horizons to inspire the design and application of high-performance hydrogels in fields of material chemistry, tissue engineering, and flexible electronics.

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Hydrogel tubes as one kind of perfusable tubular materials, show promising applications in a wide spectrum of fields. However, there is still a great challenge to design a rapid, biocompatible, and straightforward strategy for one-step engineering tough hydrogel tubes, which have excellent mechanical properties, unique resilience, and multiple functions. Herein, we explore visible-light-mediated orthogonal photochemistry to achieve the fabrication of tough hydrogel tubes with double networks via a coaxial-nozzle spinning technique under short blue-light irradiation (∼20 s). The as-prepared tubes are tough (2.3 MJ m–3) and have mechanical strength (∼300 kPa) with a critical strain of 16, good fatigue resistance, and resilience (>95% within 3 min). These perfusable tubular hydrogels not only can be knitted and assembled to complicated 2D/3D structures, but also are designed to fabricate functional tubes in one step with the applications in fields of smart materials, soft electronics, and sensors.

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The enhanced fluorescence of FGDY is considered to be induced by low phonon energy of fluoride, reducing non-radiative transition sites.

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A monolithic hierarchical Au sponge is prepared by the polymer-assisted metal deposition method, showing excellent catalysis in intermittent and continuous-flow fashions.

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