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Design of strong and tough methylcellulose-based hydrogels using kosmotropic Hofmeister salts

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Abstract

Design of strong and tough hydrogels had made significant progress recently. However, most of the cellulose-based hydrogels are soft and brittle. In this work, we fabricate a class of strong and tough hydrogels by simply soaking poly (acrylamide) (PAM)/methylcellulose (MC) hydrogels in kosmotropic solutions. The kosmotropic ions could notably enhance the hydrophobic interactions and chain bundlings of MC. As a consequence, the obtained optimal ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4] treated PAM/MC gel with a water content of approximately 30 wt% exhibit predominant mechanical properties, with the fracture tensile strength of 4.4 MPa, fracture elongation of 690%, elastic modulus of 3.8 MPa, and toughness of 19.3 MJ/m3, superior to that of the most existing cellulose-based hydrogels. The enhancement of mechanical properties could be ascribed to the formation of more hydrophobic associations in methylcellulose network. Additionally, the mechanical properties of the methylcellulose-based hydrogels could be facile and finely tuned by varying the post soaking time and the kind of Hofmeister salts. We expect that this work may enrich the avenue in the preparation and regulation of MC-hydrogels for promising applications in biomedical and load-bearing fields.

Graphic abstract

The obtained PAM/MC-As gels possessed eminent mechanical performances. Additionally, the mechanical properties of MC-based hydrogels could be facile and finely tuned by soaking in different kosmotropic anions solution.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are extremely grateful to financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21808126).

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  1. Wei Chen and Delin Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao, 276826, China

    Wei Chen, Delin Li, Yunhao Bu & Nan Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Guangxue Chen & Xiaofang Wan

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  1. Wei Chen
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  2. Delin Li
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  3. Yunhao Bu
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  4. Guangxue Chen
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Correspondence to Wei Chen or Nan Li.

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Chen, W., Li, D., Bu, Y. et al. Design of strong and tough methylcellulose-based hydrogels using kosmotropic Hofmeister salts. Cellulose 27, 1113–1126 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02871-6

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