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Toughening mechanism of nanocomposite physical hydrogels fabricated by a single gel network with dual crosslinking — The roles of the dual crosslinking points

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Abstract

A facile method to fabricate tough and highly stretchable polyacrylamide (PAM) nanocomposite physical hydrogel (NCP gel) was proposed. The hydrogels are dually crosslinked single network with the PAM grafted vinyl hybrid silica nanoparticles (VSNPs) as the analogous covalent crosslinking points and the reversible hydrogen bonds among the PAM chains as the physical crosslinking points. In order to further elucidate the toughening mechanism of the PAM NCP gel, especially to understand the role of the dual crosslinking points, the PAM hybrid hydrogels (H gels) and a series of poly(acrylamide-co-dimethylacrylamide) (P(AM-co-DMAA)) NCP gels were designed and fabricated. Their mechanical properties were compared with those of the PAM NCP gels. The PAM H gels are prepared by simply mixing the PAM chains with bare silica nanoparticles (SNPs). Relative to the poor mechanical properties of the PAM H gel, the PAM NCP gel is remarkably tough and stretchable and also generates large number of micro-cracks to stop notch propagation, indicating the important role of PAM grafted VSNPs in toughening the NCP gel. In the P(AM-co-DMAA) NCP gels, the P(AM-co-DMAA) chains are grafted on VSNPs and the polydimethylacrylamide (PDMAA) only forms very weak hydrogen bonds between themselves. It is found that mechanical properties of the PAM NCP gel, such as the tensile strength and the elongation at break, are enhanced significantly, but those of the P(AM-co-DMAA) NCP gels decreased rapidly with decreasing AM content. This result reveals the role of the hydrogen bonds among the grafted polymer chains as the physical crosslinking points in toughening the NCP gel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE), Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Fu-kuan Shi, Ming Zhong, Li-qin Zhang, Xiao-ying Liu & Xu-ming Xie  (谢续明)

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  1. Fu-kuan Shi
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  2. Ming Zhong
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  3. Li-qin Zhang
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  4. Xiao-ying Liu
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  5. Xu-ming Xie  (谢续明)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xu-ming Xie  (谢续明).

Additional information

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21474058 and 51633003), State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University (No. LK1404), Tsinghua University Scientific Research Project (No. 2014Z22069), and State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology (No. OIC-201601006).

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Toughening Mechanism of Nanocomposite Physical Hydrogels Fabricated by a Single Gel Network with Dual Crosslinking — The Roles of the Dual Crosslinking Points

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Shi, Fk., Zhong, M., Zhang, Lq. et al. Toughening mechanism of nanocomposite physical hydrogels fabricated by a single gel network with dual crosslinking — The roles of the dual crosslinking points. Chin J Polym Sci 35, 25–35 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-017-1869-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-017-1869-x

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