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Macroporous polyvinyl alcohol-tannic acid hydrogel with high strength and toughness for cartilage replacement

  • Materials for life sciences
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Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels as alternative materials for biomedical applications have attracted extensive attention. However, the development of bioactive hydrogel with macroporous structure and good mechanical performance is still an enormous challenge. In this study, a PVA-tannic acid (TA) macroporous hydrogel is presented by cryogelation method. The macropores are obtained by the large-sized ice crystals generated in situ. The pore size of the obtained hydrogel could reach 150–250 μm and the porosity is over 85%. The macroporous PVA-TA hydrogel exhibit notable compressive modulus (0.54 MPa), tensile modulus (0.70 MPa), compressive toughness (1.14 MJ/m3) and tensile toughness (1.49 MJ/m3). In addition, the hydrogel has remarkable self-recovery and energy dissipation ability. From the in vitro cell culture, it is observed that TA has strongly enhanced the bioadhesion and bioactivity of hydrogel, implying the potential application of PVA-TA hydrogel in cartilage replacement.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key R&D Project of China (2018YFA0704103, 2018YFA0704104), National Natural Science Foundation China (11772086, U1908233), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT21TD105).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Structure Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Heng Li, Jinming Li, Tong Li, Chengwei Wu & Wei Zhang

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  1. Heng Li
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  2. Jinming Li
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  3. Tong Li
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  5. Wei Zhang
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Correspondence to Wei Zhang.

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Li, H., Li, J., Li, T. et al. Macroporous polyvinyl alcohol-tannic acid hydrogel with high strength and toughness for cartilage replacement. J Mater Sci 57, 8262–8275 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07209-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07209-5

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