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Vortex fluidic mediated one-step fabrication of polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel films with tunable surface morphologies and enhanced self-healing properties

涡流介导的一步法制备具有可调表面形态和增强 自愈性能的聚乙烯醇水凝胶膜

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Abstract

Previous strategies for controlling the surface morphologies of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based hydrogels, including freeze-drying and electrospinning, require a post-treatment process, which can affect the final textures and properties of the hydrogels. Of particular interest, it is almost impossible to control the surface morphology during the formation of PVA hydrogels using these approaches. The strategy reported in this study used the novel vortex fluidic device (VFD) technology, which for the first time provided an opportunity for one-step fabrication of PVA hydrogel films. PVA hydrogels with different surface morphologies could be readily fabricated using a VFD. By also reducing the cross-linking agent concentration, a self-healing gel with enhanced fracture stress (60% greater than that of traditionally made hydrogel) was achieved. Interestingly, the associated self-healing property remained unchanged during the 260-s mechanical testing performed with the strain rate of 5% s−1. The VFD can effectively tune the surface morphologies of the PVA-based hydrogels and their associated properties, particularly the self-healing property.

摘要

控制基于聚乙烯醇(PVA)的水凝胶表面形态的传统策略包括冷冻干燥和静电纺丝, 但是这些方法要求进行后处理过程, 这可能会影响最终的水凝胶的质地和性能. 特别是, 使用这些方法几乎不可能在PVA水凝胶的形成过程中控制其表面形貌. 本研究首次报道了借助新颖的涡流装置(VFD)技术一步法制备PVA水凝胶膜. 使用VFD可以很容易地制造出具有不同表面形貌的PVA水凝胶. 并通过降低交联剂的浓度, 获得了具有增强断裂应力(比传统制造 的水凝胶大60%)的自愈水凝胶. 有趣的是, 在5% s−1的应变率下进行的260 s机械测试中, 相关的自愈特性保持不变. VFD可以有效地调控基于PVA的水凝胶的表面形貌及其相关特性, 尤其是水凝胶的自愈特性.

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Acknowledgements

Tavakoli J and Tang Y acknowledge an International Research Grant (International Laboratory for Health Technologies) of South Australia for support. Raston CL is grateful for support from the Australian Research Council and Ma Y is grateful for the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51679183). The expertise, equipment, and support provided by Microscopy Australia and the Australian National Fabrication Facility at the South Australian nodes under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy are acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2007, Australia

    Javad Tavakoli

  2. Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, 5042, Australia

    Javad Tavakoli, Colin L. Raston, Yong Ma  (马勇) & Youhong Tang  (唐友宏)

  3. School of Sports Engineering and Information Technology, Wuhan Sports University, Hubei, 430079, China

    Yong Ma  (马勇)

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  1. Javad Tavakoli
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  2. Colin L. Raston
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  3. Yong Ma  (马勇)
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  4. Youhong Tang  (唐友宏)
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Contributions

The study was designed by Tavakoli J and Tang Y. Experiment and data collection were performed by Tavakoli J and Ma Y. All authors contributed to the data analysis and general discussion. The manuscript was written by Tavakoli J and was critically reviewed by Tang Y and Raston CL.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Javad Tavakoli or Youhong Tang  (唐友宏).

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Javad Tavakoli obtained his PhD degree in Flinders University, Australia in 2018. Currently, he is a Chancellor’s postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His main research interests are multiscale characterization and fabrication of smart materials including hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Youhong Tang obtained his PhD degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2007. He moved to Flinders University with an ARC-DECRA in 2012 from the Centre for Advanced Materials Technology, the University of Sydney. As a material science and engineering researcher, his research interests mainly focus on the structure-process-property relations of polymeric materials and nano-composites, multifunctional and value-added nanocomposites and bioresources, biomaterials and biosensors, especially incorporating novel aggregation-induced emission materials.

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Tavakoli, J., Raston, C.L., Ma, Y. et al. Vortex fluidic mediated one-step fabrication of polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel films with tunable surface morphologies and enhanced self-healing properties. Sci. China Mater. 63, 1310–1317 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1301-y

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