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Modification of cellulose nanocrystal-reinforced composite hydrogels: effects of co-crosslinked and drying treatment

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Abstract

The synthesis platform of composite hydrogels containing rigid reinforcing filler cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and polymer matrix polyacrylamide (PAM) has been proposed (Yang et al. in Cellulose 20:227–237, 2013). The features of CNCs as multifunctional crosslinkers and flexible polymer chain entanglements contributed to the unique arrangement of CNC/PAM clusters with reversible network structures. In this article, the chemical crosslinking agent N,N′-methylene-bisacrylamide (BIS) was added to obtain the dual crosslinked networks, and the mechanical properties of the resulting co-crosslinked hydrogels were examined by tailoring the CNC and BIS concentrations. The results indicated that the homogeneous dispersion of CNCs throughout the polymer matrix was disturbed in the presence of BIS, and the covalent crosslinkers led to weakness and brittleness of the hydrogels. Some new entanglements within the networks were formed after a simple drying treatment, which was verified by the greater tensile strength compared with the as-prepared ones. The mechanism for the formation of these new entanglements was ascribed to the irreversible rearrangement of the CNC/PAM network structure, whereas for co-crosslinked hydrogels no strength increment was observed after the drying treatment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (TD2011-10), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20120014120006), and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0782).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Wooden Material Science and Application, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China

    Jun Yang & Xue-Ming Zhang

  2. Beijing SL Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Beijing, China

    Jing-Jing Zhao

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  1. Jun Yang
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  2. Jing-Jing Zhao
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  3. Xue-Ming Zhang
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Correspondence to Jun Yang.

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Yang, J., Zhao, JJ. & Zhang, XM. Modification of cellulose nanocrystal-reinforced composite hydrogels: effects of co-crosslinked and drying treatment. Cellulose 21, 3487–3496 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-014-0364-6

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