Highly Resilient Dual-Crosslinked Hydrogel Adhesives Based on a Dopamine-Modified Crosslinker

Hydrogels are promising material for wound dressing and tissue engineering. However, owing to their low tissue adhesion in a moist environment and lack of flexibility, hydrogels are still not widely applied in movable parts, such as joints. Herein, we report a dualcrosslinked hydrogel adhesive using a dopamine-modified and acrylateterminated crosslinker, tri(ethylene glycol) diacrylate-dopamine cross linker (TDC). The covalent crosslinking was formed by photo polymerization between acrylic acid (AA) and TDC, and the non covalent crosslinking was formed by intermolecular dopamine- dopamine and dopamine-AA interactions. Our resultant hydrogel demonstrated strong tissue adhesion in a moist environment (approximately 71 kPa) and high mechanical resilience (approximately 94%) with immediate recovery at a 200% strain rate. Moreover, it accelerated wound healing upon dressing the wound site properly. Our study provides the potential for advanced polymer synthesis by introducing a functional crosslinking agent.

Automated summary

In this study, a dual-crosslinked hydrogel adhesive using TDC as a crosslinker was introduced, demonstrating strong tissue adhesion and high mechanical resilience. Proper wound dressing with this hydrogel accelerated wound healing, indicating potential for advanced polymer synthesis by introducing functional crosslinking agents.