Network structure and compositional effects on tensile mechanical properties of hydrophobic association hydrogels with high mechanical strength

Self-healable, tough and highly stretchable hydrophobic association/ionic dual physically cross-linked hydrogels

“…9,10 Traditional chemically cross-linked hydrogels tend to display low mechanical strength and poor toughness, due to the inhomogeneity of the chemical crosslinking network and lack of effective energy dissipation under deformation. In order to get better mechanical properties, to date, a good deal of approaches have been proposed in an effort to obtain hydrogels with favourable mechanical properties, such as semi-IPN hydrogels, 11 slide-ring hydrogels, 12 hydrophobic association hydrogels (HA gels), [13][14][15] double-network (DN) hydrogels, [16][17][18] macromolecular microsphere composite (MMC) hydrogels 19 and nanocomposite hydrogels. [20][21][22] Among the various hydrogels, DN gels stand out, having gained tremendous attraction due to their remarkable comprehensive mechanical performance.…”

Facile fabrication method of hydrophobic-associating cross-linking hydrogel with outstanding mechanical performance and self-healing property in the absence of surfactants

“…Theoretically, a string of flowers, even macroscopic network with hydrophobic cores as cross-linking points, can occur by increasing the concentration of amphiphilic multiblock copolymers [19] Taking advantage of the concept of the self-assembly of amphiphilic multiblock copolymer, some supermolecular gels based on low-molecularweight block copolymer gelators and physical cross-linking hydrogel via hydrophobic-associating interaction in the presence of surfactants (HA gels) have been successfully realized [20,21]. However, the complicated synthesis process of multiblock copolymers and the extremely poor mechanical property of macroscopic self-assembled hydrogels limit their development.…”

A skin-like stretchable colorimetric temperature sensor

“…5b, pure PDMS film possessed a tensile Young's modulus, ultimate tensile strength and elongation at break of 1 MPa, 1.8 MPa and 150%, respectively. By comparison, the blue-phase PDA could sustain up to~300% stretch- [41], double network gel (DN gel) [42], poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) gel (PNAGA gel) [43], polyurethane (PEU gel) [44], polypyrrole-grafted chitosan gel (DCh-Ppy gel) [45], nanocomposite hydrogels (NC gel) [46], hydrophobic association hydrogels (HA gel) [47], bacterial cellulose gel (BC gel) [48] and skin [49][50][51].…”