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Robust bonding and one-step facile synthesis of tough hydrogels with desirable shape by virtue of the double network structure

2010; Royal Society of Chemistry; Volume: 2; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1039/c0py00272k

1759-9962

Junji Saito, Hidemitsu Furukawa, Takayuki Kurokawa, Rikimaru Kuwabara, Shinya Kuroda, Jian Hu, Yoshimi Tanaka, Jian Ping Gong, Nobuto Kitamura, Kazunori Yasuda,

Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials

Robust bonding of a hydrogel in aqueous environment, either to another hydrogel or to a solid, is one of the major unsolved issues for the practical applications of hydrogels in various fields. Here we report robust bonding between a pair of hydrogel sheets, containing over 90 wt% of water, by applying the double-network (DN) structure. In the optimal condition, the peeling energy of the united gel sheets reaches 1200 J m−2, which is comparable to the bulk fracture energy of a normal type of tough DN gels. This hydrogel bonding technique is also applied to form tough bonding between hydrogel and plastic plates. Furthermore, based on this technique, we have developed a facile method to synthesize robust double network hydrogels with any desirable free-shape from micro-gel precursors. These novel techniques will substantially merit the applications of the tough hydrogels in various fields, such as an artificial meniscus.