One‐Step Preparation of Tough and Self‐Healing Polyion Complex Hydrogels with Tunable Swelling Behaviors

Abstract

Polyion complex (PIC) hydrogels formed by charge attraction of opposite charged polymers have received unique research interest. Their conventional preparation method, with a large amount of residual salt after polymerization, requires a long‐term dialysis treatment to remove the salt and toughen the gel. Here, a promising strategy for the one‐step preparation of tough PIC hydrogels without dialysis after polymerization is provided. Bicarbonate and proton ions are selected as the counter ions of the cationic monomer and anionic polymers, respectively. By a CO2‐generating reaction between the counter ions, the residual salt is removed before polymerization, and thus, a PIC hydrogel with tough mechanical performance can be obtained instantly without dialysis. Due to the absence of dialysis, the tough hydrogel can be formed with a wide range of ratios for the oppositely charged polymer with distinct swelling behaviors from non‐swelling to super‐swelling. This tunable swelling behavior shows the possibility for shape‐morphing systems from this one‐step method.

Regenerated hydrogel electrolyte towards an all-gel supercapacitor

“…S7, the absorption peak at 964 cm −1 is assigned to the stretching vibration of -N(CH 3 ) 3 + functional groups and the peak at 1540 cm −1 is characteristic of C=O asymmetric stretching of the carboxylate anion. These features clearly confirm the coexistence of positive -N(CH 3 ) 3 + and negative -COO − functional groups in all the samples [32,33]. Compared with the p(MAA-MAPTAC), the CGs feature an absorbance peak of C=O stretching vibration at…”

An injectable self‐healing hydrogel based on poly(acrylamide‐co‐N‐vinylimidazole) and laponite clay nanosheets

“…In recent years, hydrogels have received increasing interest, due to their potential applications and novel functions, for example, drug delivery, tissue engineering, soft machines, and biocompatible adhesives. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] In particular, Laponite composite hydrogels have drawn intense attention. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Laponite XLG (Na 0.7 [Mg 5.…”

Chemically Coupled Interfacial Adhesion in Multimaterial Printing of Hydrogels and Elastomers

“…Without proper integration, the devices could be prone to failures such as delamination and their long-term reliability may be questionable. Although there are abundance of studies that have looked at the extrusion printing of soft materials independently, including hydrogels − and silicone elastomers, − far fewer have looked at combined hydrogel–elastomer device fabrication. − …”