Journal
MACROMOLECULES
Volume 49, Issue 15, Pages 5660-5668Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.6b00584
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Funding
- NSFC [21474032]
- 973 Program [2012CB821500]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2015M580720]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2015ZM158]
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The applications of hydrogels are severely limited by their weak mechanical properties. Despite recent significant progress in fabricating tough hydrogels, it is still a challenge to realize high stretchability, toughness, and recoverability at the same time in a hydrogel. Herein, we develop a novel class of dual physically cross-linked (DPC) hydrogels, which are triggered by clay nanosheets and iron ions (Fe3+) as cross-linkers. First, clay nanosheets induce the formation of the first cross-linking points through the interaction of hydrogen bonds with poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PAm-co-Ac) chains. Then the secondary cross-linking points are introduced by ionic coordinates between Fe3+ and -COO- groups of PAm-co-Ac polymer chains. The mechanical properties of DPC hydrogels can be tuned readily by varying, preparation parameters such as clay concentration, Fe3+ concentration, and molar ratio of Ac/Am. More importantly, the optimal DPC hydrogels possess high tensile strength (ca. 3.5 MPa), large elongation (ca. 21 times), remarkable toughness (ca. 49 MJ m(-3)), and good self-recoverability (ca. 65% toughness recovery within 4 h without any external stimuli). Thus, this work provides a promising strategy for the fabrication of novel tough hydrogel containing a dual physical cross-linked network.
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