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Formation of high strength double-network gels from cellulose nanofiber/polyacrylamide via NaOH gelation treatment

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Abstract

Previously, we reported an efficient method to prepare tough hydrogels from cellulose nanofibers using an alkali treatment which had an nano-network structure. In this study, polyacrylamide/cellulose nanofiber (PAM/CNF) double-network (DN) gels were synthesized by simply using 15 wt% NaOH at room temperature. The compression properties and morphology of the gels were investigated. The main findings showed that the compressive stress of the PAM/CNF DN gel (CNF content of 5.7 wt%) was more than 15-fold higher than the pure PAM. When compared with the PAM/CNF gel prepared without alkali treatment, the mechanical properties of the PAM/CNF DN gel showed approximately 2-fold improvement. Analysis of this DN gel morphology further demonstrated that the CNF network (formed via 15 wt% NaOH treatment) was embedded in the PAM matrix, thereby increasing the strength of the hybrid gels. In summary, PAM/CNF DN gels with significantly improved mechanical properties could be prepared using a simple method, which provide great potential as bio-medical load-bearing gel materials.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Special Budget “Smart-Materials” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (CN) (No. BK20170925), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 31670555), and Innovation Fund for Young Scholars of Nanjing Forestry University (CX 2017001) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Chuchu Chen & Dagang Li

  2. Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Uji, 611-0011, Japan

    Chuchu Chen, Kentaro Abe & Hiroyuki Yano

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  1. Chuchu Chen
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  2. Dagang Li
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  3. Kentaro Abe
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  4. Hiroyuki Yano
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Correspondence to Chuchu Chen or Hiroyuki Yano.

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Chen, C., Li, D., Abe, K. et al. Formation of high strength double-network gels from cellulose nanofiber/polyacrylamide via NaOH gelation treatment. Cellulose 25, 5089–5097 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1938-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1938-5

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