Abstract
There is a high demand for hydrogels with multifunctional performance (a combination of adhesive, mechanical, and electrical properties) in biological, tissue engineering, robotics, and smart device applications. However, a majority of existing hydrogels are relatively rigid and brittle, with limited stretchability; this hinders their application in the emerging field of flexible devices. In this study, cheap and abundant potato residues were used with polyacrylamide (PAM) to fabricate a multifunctional hydrogel, and chitosan was used for the design of a three-dimentional (3D) network-structured hydrogel. The as-prepared hydrogels exhibited excellent stretchability, with an extension exceeding 900% and a recovery degree of over 99%. Due to the combination of physical and chemical cross-linking properties and the introduction of dopamine, the designed hydrogel exhibits a remarkable self-healing ability (80% mechanical recovery in 2 h), high tensile strength (0.75 MPa), and ultra-stretchability (900%). The resultant products offer superior properties compared to those of previously reported tough and self-healing hydrogels for wound adhesion. Chitosan and potato residues were used as scaffold materials for the hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties. In addition, in vitro experiments show that these hydrogels feature excellent antibacterial properties, effectively hindering the reproduction of bacteria. Moreover, the ternary hydrogel can act as a strain sensor with high sensitivity and a gauge factor of 1.6. The proposed strategy is expected to serve as a reference for the development of green and recyclable conductive polymers to fabricate hydrogels. The proposed hydrogel can also act as a suitable strain sensor for bio-friendly devices such as smart wearable electronic devices and/or for health monitoring.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51875577 and 81972901), Tribology Science Fund of State Key Laboratory of Tribology (No. SKLTKF16A06), Chinese PLA General Hospital Training Program “The National Science Found for Distinguished Young Scholars” (No. 2019-JQPY-004), The Science Foundation of China University of Petroleum-Beijing (Nos. 2462019QNXZ02 and 2462018BJC004). T.S.H. acknowledges the support from the U.S. National Science Foundation PREM Program (NSF DMR-1523588).
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Weijun LI. He received his master’s degree from China University of Petroleum (Beijing) in 2020 under Prof. Quan Xu’s supervision. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Prof. Xu Hou’s group at Xiamen University. His research interests focused on bio-inspired smart porous and channel systems, polymer membrane, and hydrogel materials.
Quan XU. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University and Ph.D. degree in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, under Prof. Zhenhai Xia’s supervision. He joined the College of New Energy and Materials Science, China University of Petroleum-Beijing in 2014 and now promoted as a full processor. He has over 80 publications with over 2500 citations and his research is related to biomimicry reversible adhesion surfaces and their energy, medical, and environmental applications.
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Li, W., Liu, H., Mi, Y. et al. Robust and conductive hydrogel based on mussel adhesive chemistry for remote monitoring of body signals. Friction 10, 80–93 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0416-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0416-x