Bioinspired strategies have drawn much attention for designing intelligent hydrogels with promising performance. Herein, we present a bioinspired adhesive hydrogel driven by adenine and thymine, which are the basic units of DNA. The adhesive hydrogel exhibited promising adhesive property for the surface of various solid materials, including muscle tissues, plastics, rubbers, glasses, metals, ceramics, carnelians, and woods. The maximum peeling strength of hydrogels was 330 N m on aluminum, superior to that of PAAm hydrogels with 70 N m. The strong adhesive behavior remained more than 30 times repeated peeling tests. Moreover, the swelling behavior, morphological structure, mechanical strength, and peeling adhesive strength were also investigated and confirmed the formation and various characteristics of adhesive hydrogels driven by adenine and thymine. Thus, the biomimetic strategy to design promising adhesive hydrogels can provide various opportunities in tissue engineering, such as wound dressing, bioglues, and tissue adhesives.
Conductive hydrogels
had demonstrated significant prospect in the
field of wearable devices. However, hydrogels suffer from a huge limitation of freezing when the temperature
falls below zero. Here, a novel conductive organohydrogel was developed
by introducing polyelectrolytes and glycerol into hydrogels. The gel
exhibited excellent elongation, self-healing, and self-adhesive performance
for various materials. Moreover, the gel could withstand a low temperature
of −20 °C for 24 h without freezing and still maintain
good conductivity and self-healing properties. As a result, the sample
could be applied for motion detection and signal transmission. For
example, it can respond to finger movements and transmit network signals
like network cables. Therefore, it was envisioned that the effective
design strategy for conductive organohydrogels with antifreezing,
toughness, self-healing, and self-adhesive properties would provide
wide applications of flexible wearable devices.
Paper, for writing
and printing, is consumed a lot in modern life. However, the production
of conventional paper could cause many problems, such as deforestation
and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is necessary and urgent
to explore novel strategies to solve these problems. In this work,
a polyoxometalate-doped gelatin film with high strength, excellent
transparency, and fast photochromic properties is designed and prepared.
The film can display different colors by using a variety of reagents,
exhibiting its potential application as a paper medium. Its rapid
photochromic properties allow complex high-resolution images to be
displayed by UV light printing. It is found that the mechanical and
photochromic properties could be regulated by the introduction of
triethylene glycol, and the fading process could be controlled by
changing the temperature and humidity. Moreover, it is rewritable,
self-repairable, and recyclable, and can also achieve long-term preservation
without fading. It is envisioned that the environmentally friendly
films with low cost, ease of preparation, and recycling advantages
have the potential to be an alternative to conventional paper for
writing and printing.
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