Nano-structured smart hydrogels with rapid response and high elasticity

By Lieyin Xia, Rui Xie, Xiaojie Ju, Wei Wang, Qianming Chen, L. Chu. Nature Communications, 2013

602 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Smart hydrogels, or stimuli-responsive hydrogels, are three-dimensional networks composed of crosslinked hydrophilic polymer chains that are able to dramatically change their volume and other properties in response to environmental stimuli such as temperature, pH and certain chemicals. Rapid and significant response to environmental stimuli and high elasticity are critical for the versatility of such smart hydrogels. Here we report the synthesis of smart hydrogels which are rapidly responsive, highly swellable and stretchable, by constructing a nano-structured architecture with activated nanogels as nano-crosslinkers. The nano-structured smart hydrogels show very significant and rapid stimuli-responsive characteristics, as well as highly elastic properties to sustain high compressions, resist slicing and withstand high level of deformation, such as bending, twisting and extensive stretching. Because of the concurrent rapid and significant stimuli-response and high elasticity, these nano-structured smart hydrogels may expand the scope of hydrogel applications, and provide enhanced performance in their applications. Smart hydrogels are 3D networks composed of cross-linked polymer chains that can alter their shape and properties in response to environmental stimuli. Xiaet al.demonstrate a smart hydrogel with rapid response and high elasticity, due to its nano-scale structure.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/625578a6e39e93014c60178b25aa04024989884a

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In Biomedical Engineering

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In Mechanical Engineering

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Citations in the corpus

• Morphing in nature and beyond: a review of natural and synthetic shape-changing materials and mechanisms (2016, background): “011 [112] Xia L-W, Xie R, Ju X-J, Wang W, Chen Q, Chu L-Y (2013) Nano-structured smart hydrogels with rapid response and”
• Amphiphiles Self-Assembly: Basic Concepts and Future Perspectives of Supramolecular Approaches (2015, background): “Due to its LCST (close to body temperature) and its fast on-off switching thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogel with an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure is one of the most intensely studied topics for biomedical applications [82].”