Weak Hydrogen Bonding Enables Hard, Strong, Tough, and Elastic Hydrogels.

Hu, Xiaobo; Vatankhah-Varnoosfaderani, Mohammad; Zhou, Jing; Li, Qiaoxi; Sheiko, Sergei S · Adv Mater · 2015

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

A new type of "rigid and tough" hydrogel with excellent elasticity is designed by dense clustering of hydrogen bonds within a loose chemical network. The resultant hydrogel exhibits a good combination of high modulus (28 MPa), toughness (9300 J m(-3) ), extensibility (800%), and tensile stress (2 MPa). Furthermore, the gel displays good fatigue-resistance and complete and extremely fast recovery of shape and mechanical properties (3 min at 37°C).