Ultrathin tough double network hydrogels showing adjustable muscle-like isometric force generation triggered by solvent

Liang, Songmiao; Yu, Qiu Ming; Yin, Haiyan; Wu, Zi Liang; Kurokawa, Takayuki; Gong, Jian Ping

doi:10.1039/b916581a

Cited by 58 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…71 Entanglements between two polymer networks are a prerequisite condition in all cases for the toughness of DN gels. 75 After the innovation of DN gels, some research groups began studying various avenues of research with DN gels, but no detailed observations of stimuli sensitivity have been reported thus far, except in the work of Liang et al 76 Recently, they reported a fast and high solvent-triggered force generation considering their mechanical toughness for very thin DN gels. As high-level inhomogeneities are the origin of superior toughness of DN gels, the stimuli sensitivity of bulk DN gels could be very complex.…”

Section: Double Network Gelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent advances in hydrogels in terms of fast stimuli responsiveness and superior mechanical performance

Imran

Seki

Takeoka

2010

Polym J

137

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This review addresses the potential development of polymer hydrogels in terms of fast stimuli responsiveness and superior mechanical properties. The slow response and mechanical weakness of stimuli-sensitive hydrogels have been considered as the main barriers for their further development and practical application. It has been a dream of scientists to have fast stimuliresponsive hydrogels with superior mechanical performance. In this review, the principal reasons behind the poor stimulus sensitivity and mechanical strength of polymer gels are highlighted, and we present some pioneering physical and chemical efforts aimed at fabricating hydrogels with high stimuli sensitivities and/or superior mechanical properties. Polymer Journal ( Keywords: butterfly pattern; fast stimuli sensitivity; hydrogel; LCST; mechanical property INTRODUCTION Polymer hydrogels (hereafter called 'hydrogels') are three-dimensional polymer networks in which the voids are filled with water. These hydrogels are widely used in a variety of industrial and consumer products such as oil dewatering systems, mechanical absorbers, diapers and contact lenses. One of the most remarkable areas of research on hydrogels in the past few decades has been their stimulus sensitivity. Hydrogels composed of stimuli-responsive polymers reversibly alter their shape and volume in response to small variations in the environment, such as pH, temperature, light and electric and magnetic fields, thereby changing their physico-chemical characteristics. 1 Among all of the available environmentally responsive hydrogels, temperature-responsive hydrogels have attracted the most attention because of the facile tuning of their properties. In particular, poly(Nisopropylacrylamide) (poly(NIPA)) hydrogels have been widely investigated as thermosensitive hydrogels. Poly(NIPA) has a low critical solution temperature (LCST) at around 32 1C in water. The flexible coil of poly(NIPA) (soluble) converts into a compact globular state (insoluble) at the LCST, and this conformational change is reversible. 2 Thus, hydrogels composed of poly(NIPA) undergo a reversible volume change at a similar transition temperature in water. Poly(NIPA) hydrogels have potential applications in drug delivery systems, therapeutic agents, diagnostic devices, biomaterials, cell cultivation, biocatalysts, sensors, microfluidic devices, actuators, optical devices and size-selective separation among others. [3][4][5] A recent subject that has attracted much attention in the field of gel science is the fabrication of hydrogels with the rapid stimuli responsiveness and superior mechanical properties required for many applications of stimuli-responsive hydrogels. The creation of durable

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Section: Double Network Gelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent advances in hydrogels in terms of fast stimuli responsiveness and superior mechanical performance

Imran

Seki

Takeoka

2010

Polym J

137

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“…Ultrathin PAMPS/PAAm double-network gels (UTDN gels) are synthesized by multistep photopolymerization (Figure 3), 71 adapted from the general two-step synthesis of bulk DN gel. Using two glass plates spaced with 15, 25, and 50¯m polyethylene film, we first synthesized ultrathin PAMPS gels by the first step polymerization.…”

Section: Thin Film Dn Gel and Its Stimuli-responsive Behavior As Musclementioning

confidence: 99%

“…71 Figure 5a presents the cyclic changes in the isometric stress of the UTDN gels alternately triggered by water and EtOH. The magnification of one of the cycles (8001300 s) is shown in Figure 5b.…”

Section: Thin Film Dn Gel and Its Stimuli-responsive Behavior As Musclementioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Developed Systems and Techniques Based on Double-Network Principle

Wu¹,

Kurokawa

Gong³

2011

Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan

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The double-network hydrogels (DN gels), developed by our group in 2003, have attracted increasing attention due to their excellent mechanical performance and unique fracture mechanism. The anomalously large fracture energy of DN gels up to 2200 J m ¹2 originates from the specific combination of two networks with contrasting properties. The first brittle network serves as sacrificial bonds, which breaks into small clusters to efficiently disperse the stress around the crack tip into the surrounding damage zone, while the second ductile polymer chains act as hidden length, which extends extensively to sustain large deformation. The DN gels also exhibit good biocompatibility and low friction resistance. Owing to these superior properties, DN gels possess promising prospective in industrial and medicine fields, especially for load-bearing artificial soft tissues such as artificial cartilage. However, there are several critical problems limiting the practical applications of DN gels, such as how to produce tough artificial tissue with complex shapes or bond a gel to a solid substrate. To address these specific issues, we have developed new systems and techniques based on the DN principle. These achievements, including synthesis of ultrathin DN gels, bonding of one gel to another gel or solid substrate, free-shaping of DN gels, enhancing typical single network gels by creating a DN structure, will be briefly introduced in this account paper. We believe that these new techniques will substantially promote the practical applications of DN hydrogels and extent the DN principle to other systems.

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“…We have developed a three-step polymerization method to synthesize the thin and tough film hydrogels with triple network (TN) structure based on the tough DN gel principle [20][21][22]. (This gel was called as DN gel in the cited literatures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Under a certain pre-strain, these hydrogels could be triggered by ethanol, a poor solvent to PAAm network, and gave a high muscle-level stress output of 0.25 MPa with a response time of ~10 seconds [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrathin tough double network hydrogels showing adjustable muscle-like isometric force generation triggered by solvent

Cited by 58 publications

References 35 publications

Recent advances in hydrogels in terms of fast stimuli responsiveness and superior mechanical performance

Recent advances in hydrogels in terms of fast stimuli responsiveness and superior mechanical performance

Novel Developed Systems and Techniques Based on Double-Network Principle

Solvent and Ca2+ triggered robust and fast stress generation by ultrathin triple-network hydrogels

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