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Highly stretchable calcium ion/polyacrylic acid hydrogel prepared by freezing–thawing

  • Polymers & biopolymers
  • Published:
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Abstract

Hydrogel is a promising soft matter attracting intensive study in the field of biomaterial, flexible electronics and soft robotics. The creation of a crosslinking polymer network is vital in fabricating hydrogel. A new method of fabrication brings more choices to the field. In this work, we show that the freezing–thawing method can be applied to prepare high-performance calcium–polyacrylic acid hydrogel. We polymerize acrylic acid in calcium chloride solution and obtain a soft and weak hydrogel; after the freezing–thawing treatment, the performance of the hydrogel improves profoundly. The freeze–thawed hydrogel can sustain strain up to 1100% and fracture at a stress of 0.6 MPa. This hydrogel also shows low hysteresis less than 5% at 200% strain and good recovery up to 800% strain. The hydrogel is strengthened by the increase of ionic bonds between cation and polymer chain during the freezing treatment. The same strategy can be applied to increase the inter-chain interaction of other hydrogels and thus provides more possibility in the design of hydrogel network.

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Yunming Li would like to thank the financial support by the Science and Technology Project of Educational Commission of Jiangxi Province, China (GJJ161198).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Nanfang College of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510970, China

    Chunyan Cao

  2. School of New Energy Science and Engineering, Xinyu University, Xinyu, 338004, China

    Yunming Li

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  1. Chunyan Cao
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  2. Yunming Li
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Correspondence to Chunyan Cao or Yunming Li.

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Cao, C., Li, Y. Highly stretchable calcium ion/polyacrylic acid hydrogel prepared by freezing–thawing. J Mater Sci 55, 5340–5348 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-04332-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-04332-8

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