Tunicate cellulose nanocrystal reinforced polyacrylamide hydrogels with tunable mechanical performance

Mussel-Inspired Autonomously Self-Healable All-in-One Supercapacitor with Biocompatible Hydrogel

“…25 CNC serving as macrocross-linkers can contribute to the structural integrity and mechanical enhancement of the GelMA hydrogel. 25,56 Still, the pore size is evenly distributed in GelMA-CNC, which is beneficial for further coating of conductive agents. TA-treated GelMA-CNC shows a denser porous structure and much thicker walls between the pores because of the penetration of tannin into the GelMA-CNC hydrogel to form a water insoluble gelatin−tannin precipitation complex.…”

“…The fabrication process of TA-treated GelMA hydrogel is similar to our previous work . Modification of gelatin by grafting methacryloyl moieties on amine groups generates gelatin methacrylate (GelMA); CNC was added into the GelMA solution (1 to 9 w/w) before GelMA polymerization to mechanically reinforce the hydrogel. − Ammonium persulfate (APS) was used as an initiator, and tetramethylethylenediamine (TMED) was used as a catalytic agent for cross-linking the GelMA hydrogel. The hydrogel was then immersed into tannic acid to endowthe self-healing property (TA-GelMA-CNC hydrogel). , PANI and RGO were then coated onto the TA-GelMA-CNC hydrogel to enable electrical conductivity.…”

“…It is also shown that the incorporation of CNC may reduce the pore sizes of the hydrogels (Figure c, d). CNC has been used as nanofillers for the reinforcements of polymeric materials due to their high aspect ratio and modulus . CNC serving as macrocross-linkers can contribute to the structural integrity and mechanical enhancement of the GelMA hydrogel. , Still, the pore size is evenly distributed in GelMA-CNC, which is beneficial for further coating of conductive agents.…”

“…Modification of gelatin by grafting methacryloyl moieties on amine groups generates gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), which significantly improves the compressive and elastic moduli of gelatin hydrogels. , To further improve the mechanical strength of the GelMA hydrogel, cellulose nanocrystals were incorporated into the GelMA hydrogel in the current study. CNC have been found to enhance the mechanical strength of hydrogels due to their high crystallinity and strong intramolecular bonding. − Tannic acid is a plant-derived natural polyphenol compound which is rich in ester-linked pyrogallol and catechol groups. It has been reported that tannic acid showed biocompatibility in vivo when used in scaffolds for medical applications. − Tannic acid can bind with collagen or gelatin by multipoint hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. − Hydrogen bonding is formed between tannic acid and GelMA to generate a GelMA-based self-healable double-network (DN) .…”

Preparation and characterization of tough and highly resilient nanocomposite hydrogels reinforced by surface‐grafted cellulose nanocrystals

“…Rod‐shaped CNCs are promising nanofillers for the development of nanocomposite hydrogels. Many nanocomposite hydrogels with comprehensive mechanical properties, including high strength, high toughness and self‐recovery, have been fabricated by employing CNCs 25–26 or surface‐modified CNCs 27–29 as both reinforcing nanofillers and chemical/physical crosslinkers. Following this strategy, we prepared dual crosslinked nanocomposite hydrogels by introducing polyacrylamide grafted cellulose nanocrystal (CNC‐g‐PAM) into chemically/physically crosslinked poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) matrix 30–31 .…”