Login / Signup

Reinforcing Hydrogel by Nonsolvent-Quenching Facilitated In-Situ Nanofibrosis.

Xule YangLiju XuChen WangJilin WuBin ZhuXiaohui MengDong Qiu
Published in: Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) (2023)
Nanofibrous hydrogels are pervasive in load-bearing soft tissues, which are believed to be key to their extraordinary mechanical properties. Enlighted by this phenomenon, a novel reinforcing strategy for polymeric hydrogels is proposed, where polymer segments in the hydrogels are induced to form nanofibers in-situ by bolstering their controllable aggregation on the nanoscale level. Polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels are chosen to demonstrate the virtue of this strategy. A nonsolvent-quenching step is introduced into the conventional solvent-exchange hydrogel preparation approach, which readily promotes the formation of nanofibrous hydrogels in the following solvent-tempering process. The resultant nanofibrous hydrogels demonstrate significantly improved mechanical properties and swelling resistance, compared to the conventional solvent-exchange hydrogels with identical compositions. This work validates the hypothesis that bundling polymer chains to form nanofibers can lead to nanofibrous hydrogels with remarkably enhanced mechanical performances, which may open a new horizon for single-component hydrogel reinforcement. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Keyphrases
  • tissue engineering
  • drug delivery
  • hyaluronic acid
  • drug release
  • wound healing
  • extracellular matrix
  • cancer therapy
  • gene expression
  • high resolution
  • oxidative stress
  • diabetic rats
  • alcohol consumption
  • quantum dots