Journal
MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING C-MATERIALS FOR BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Volume 95, Issue -, Pages 86-94Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2018.10.045
Keywords
Non-swellable hydrogels; Cytocompatible hydrogels; Stiff hydrogels; Tough hydrogels; pHEMA-alginate hydrogels
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Funding
- ILJIN GROUP
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korean Government (MSIP) [2016R1C1B2007569, 2017M3D9A1073922]
- Creative-Pioneering Researchers Program through Seoul National University (SNU)
- National Research Foundation of Korea [2017M3D9A1073922, 2016R1C1B2007569] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
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Human skin exhibits high stiffness of up to 100 MPa and high toughness of up to 3600 J m(-2) despite its high water content of 40-70 wt%. Engineering hydrogels have rarely possessed both high stiffness and toughness, because compliant hydrogels usually become brittle when excess crosslinker is added to make the gel stiff. Furthermore, conventional hydrogels usually swell under physiological conditions, weakening their mechanical properties. Here, we designed a non-swellable hydrogel with high stiffness and toughness by interpenetrating covalently and ionically crosslinked networks. The stiffness is enhanced by utilizing ionic crosslinking sites fully, and the toughness is enhanced by adopting synergistic effects between energy-dissipation by ionic networks and crack-bridging by covalent networks. Non-swelling behaviors of the gel are achieved by densifying covalent and ionic crosslinks. The hybrid gel shows high elastic moduli (up to 108 MPa) and high fracture energies (up to 8850 J m(-2)). In vitro and in vivo swelling tests prove non-swelling behaviors of the gel. Live/dead assays show 99% cell viability over a period of 60 days.
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