Superstrong, superstiff, and conductive alginate hydrogels

Abstract

For the practical use of synthetic hydrogels as artificial biological tissues, flexible electronics, and conductive membranes, achieving requirements for specific mechanical properties is one of the most prominent issues. Here, we demonstrate superstrong, superstiff, and conductive alginate hydrogels with densely interconnecting networks implemented via simple reconstructing processes, consisting of anisotropic densification of pre-gel and a subsequent ionic crosslinking with rehydration. The reconstructed hydrogel exhibits broad ranges of exceptional tensile strengths (8–57 MPa) and elastic moduli (94–1,290 MPa) depending on crosslinking ions. This hydrogel can hold sufficient cations (e.g., Li+) within its gel matrix without compromising the mechanical performance and exhibits high ionic conductivity enough to be utilized as a gel electrolyte membrane. Further, this strategy can be applied to prepare mechanically outstanding, ionic-/electrical-conductive hydrogels by incorporating conducting polymer within the hydrogel matrix. Such hydrogels are easily laminated with strong interfacial adhesion by superficial de- and re-crosslinking processes, and the resulting layered hydrogel can act as a stable gel electrolyte membrane for an aqueous supercapacitor.

Localization of multiple hydrogels with MultiCUBE platform spatially guides 3D tissue morphogenesis in vitro

“…This convergence of different ideas toward similar design architectures showed an increasing interest in periodic hydrogel / frame composites for other applications, e.g. , filtration 47 or energy storage 48 .…”

“…Interestingly, the development of MultiCUBE unit-based scaffold to statically localize hydrogel solutions coincided with several recent and concurrent developments of periodic lattice/mesh structure to guide solution flows 46 . This convergence of different ideas toward similar design architectures showed an increasing interest in periodic hydrogel / frame composites for other applications, e.g., filtration 47 or energy storage 48 .…”

Nanocomposite films as electrochemical sensors for detection of catalase activity

“…The conductivity of alginate hydrogels without any fillers can modulated from 0–1 mS/m with the upper end representing superionic capacitors as a function of the crosslinking state, divalent cross-linker ion, ionic strength of the medium and temperature ( Esch et al, 1999 ; Khairou and Hassan, 2002 ; Kaklamani et al, 2018 ; Ji et al, 2022 ). In the current study, mediator-less conductance measurements enabling direct comparisons with the above-mentioned were not made.…”

Highly Robust, Sensitive, Antifreezing, and Drying-Tolerant Polyacrylamide/Gelatin/Zr4+ Hydrogels as Flexible Strain Sensors

“…Second, residual free metal ions and counter-ions also facilitate the better sensitivity of hydrogel-based sensors. Based on the above-mentioned facts, researchers have explored the toughening effect of various metal ions on hydrogels and achieved great progress, that is, Ca 2+ was often used as a toughening agent for sodium alginate, , Fe 3+ was also easy to form chelates with carboxylate, , etc.…”