Super Tough, Ultrastretchable, and Thermoresponsive Hydrogels with Functionalized Triblock Copolymer Micelles as Macro-Cross-Linkers
writer:Yuan-na Sun, Guo-rong Gao, Gao-lai Du, Ya-jun Cheng, and Jun Fu
keywords:triblock copolymer micelles, hydrogels
source:期刊
specific source:ACS Macro Letters, 3, 496-500.
Issue time:2014年
Vinyl-functionalized thermosensitive Pluronic F127 micelles have been used as multifunctional cross-links for the synthesis of super tough, highly resilient and thermoresponsive nanomicelle (NM) hydrogels. Pluronic F127 diacrylate (F127DA) with vinyl groups on both ends selfassembled in aqueous solution into micelles. Such micelles
served as multifunctional macro-cross-links to copolymerize with acrylamide (AAm) monomers, generating novel NM hydrogels with extraordinary tensile and compressive properties, without using any chemical cross-linkers. Uniaxial tensile tests demonstrated a fracture strain above 2265%, an ultimate stress of 276 kPa, and a fracture energy of 2.34 MJ/m3. Under compression tests, these hydrogels did not fracture up to 98% strain and 62 MPa stress. Cyclic compressive loading?unloading tests at 90% strain showed no decay of the hyseteresis energy, indicating an unprecedented fatigue resistance.