Reliable Hydrogel with Mechanical “Fuse Link” in an Aqueous Environment

Abstract

A robust hydrogel with a reliable deformation region in an aqueous environment is proposed. The gel has a homogeneous network where hydrophilic/hydrophobic components are uniformly distributed. In an aqueous environment, aggregated hydrophobic segments serve as "mechanical fuse links," inhibiting sudden macroscopic fracture. The gel endures threefold stretching for more than 100 cycles in water without mechanical hysteresis.

A Dual‐Crosslinked Strategy to Construct Physical Hydrogels with High Strength, Toughness, Good Mechanical Recoverability, and Shape‐Memory Ability

“…The elastic modulus of DP‐hydrogel significantly and monotonically enhanced as the molar ratio of SMA/AAm increased. These results could be ascribed that hydrophobic association was a strong and stable physical interaction without saturability . With the increasing of the molar ratio of SMA/AAm, more crosslinking domains of hydrophobic interaction formed and the corresponding strength of hydrophobic association was also reinforced consequently, resulting in the enhancement of the rigidity of polymer network.…”

“…However, conventional polymer hydrogels are inherently weak or brittle, which impedes their use in these areas . The inevitable problem conventional hydrogels are facing is when they are subjected to mechanical load, local stress concentration occurs and the accumulation of local stress will break network strands, thus producing network defects via crack propagation, finally resulting in sudden rupture of the entire body . The incorporation of mechanical energy dissipation mechanisms is an effective method to circumvent these problems, obtaining mechanically strong and tough hydrogels, of which double‐network (DN) hydrogels are the representative examples .…”

Exploration of Ideal Polymer Networks

“…By playing with the degree of cross‐linking, p , controlled‐defect networks are prepared with which percolation problems can be revisited . Furthermore, by introducing hetero‐co‐prepolymers, various types of novel gels (networks) have been developed, such as non‐swellable implantable gels, very tough “fuse”‐link gels, and amphiphilic conetworks . Furthermore, model polyelectrolyte gels, in which the concentration and spatial distribution of charges are precisely controlled, are now available .…”

New Developments in Medical Applications of Hybrid Hydrogels Containing Natural Polymers

“…Kondo and coworkers [63] prepared a dually-crosslinked polymer gel with a very homogeneous network architecture, using a tetra-arm star-shaped poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), PEG and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) building blocks linked by orthogonal cross-coupling, The obtained network from hydrophilic and hydrophobic components regularly and uniformly distributed is non-covalent hydrophobic association whose strength is tuned by the molar ratio of the hydrophilic PEG and the hydrophobic PDMS segments [64].…”