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PVA/silica hybrid hydrogel with ultra-high strength and toughness

  • Materials for life sciences
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Abstract

Due to the good biocompatibility, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels have attracted the attention of many biomaterial researchers. However, the low strength and poor toughness of pure PVA hydrogel prepared by freeze–thaw method limit the application. In this study, silica was used to enhance the performances of PVA hydrogel. Different from previous PVA/SiO2 hydrogels, urea was used to regulate the formation and distribution of silica in PVA, which greatly improved the mechanical properties of hydrogels. The tensile stress and toughness of the obtained PVA(Urea)/SiO2 hydrogels reached 8.10 MPa and 44.45 MJ/m3, which were 39 times and 212 times as that of pure PVA hydrogel, respectively. In PVA(Urea)/SiO2 hydrogels, SiO2 had both strengthening and toughening effects on hydrogels, which is very different from the ordinary composite hydrogels. In addition, PVA(Urea)/SiO2 hydrogels showed unique self-reinforcing characteristics with increasing the number of tensile recoveries in cyclic stretching and recovery tests. Thus, PVA(Urea)/SiO2 hydrogel with high strength and toughness, constructed by a simple strategy, is a potential candidate in cartilage repair.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Xiansheng Tan, Caiying Liang, Shihang Bai, Pei Lan, Yan Ren, Jianhao Zhao & Jianhua Rong

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  1. Xiansheng Tan
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  2. Caiying Liang
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  3. Shihang Bai
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  4. Pei Lan
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  5. Yan Ren
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  6. Jianhao Zhao
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  7. Jianhua Rong
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Contributions

XT, SB and CL were involved in experimental design, carrying out measurements and manuscript composition. JR and JZ took part in conceptualization, supervision, project administration, validation, funding acquisition, writing—review and editing. PL and YR were involved in conceptualization and editing.

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Correspondence to Jianhua Rong.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Handling Editor: Annela M. Seddon.

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Tan, X., Liang, C., Bai, S. et al. PVA/silica hybrid hydrogel with ultra-high strength and toughness. J Mater Sci 59, 6916–6928 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09061-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09061-7

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