Issue 1, 2020

Fabrication of novel MXene (Ti3C2)/polyacrylamide nanocomposite hydrogels with enhanced mechanical and drug release properties

Abstract

A highly stretchable nanocomposite (NC) hydrogel was fabricated via in situ free radical polymerization of acrylamide. In particular, an exfoliated two-dimensional MXene (Ti3C2) nanosheet was utilized as a crosslinker instead of traditional organic crosslinkers. The exfoliated Ti3C2 nanosheets were confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. Compared with traditional organic crosslinked N,N-methylene bisacrylamide (BIS)/polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogels (fracture strength of 32.0 kPa and elongation of 109.6%), the synthesized Ti3C2/PAM NC hydrogels exhibited greatly improved mechanical properties with fracture strengths of 66.5 to 102.7 kPa, compressive strengths of 400.6 to 819.4 kPa and elongations at break of 2158.6% to 3047.5% as the Ti3C2 content increases from 0.0145% to 0.0436%. The enhanced mechanical performances can be attributed to the honeycomb-like fine structure with uniform pores as well as more flexible polymer chains in NC hydrogel networks. When loaded with drugs, Ti3C2/PAM NC hydrogels exhibited good sustained-release performance, higher drug loading amounts (97.5–127.7 mg g−1) and higher percentage releases (62.1–81.4%), greatly superior to those of the BIS/PAM hydrogel (46.4 mg g−1, 45.0%). Our work reveals the application of MXene materials in the fabrication of NC hydrogels with enhanced mechanical and drug release behaviors.

Graphical abstract: Fabrication of novel MXene (Ti3C2)/polyacrylamide nanocomposite hydrogels with enhanced mechanical and drug release properties

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 окт 2019
Accepted
10 ное 2019
First published
13 ное 2019

Soft Matter, 2020,16, 162-169

Fabrication of novel MXene (Ti3C2)/polyacrylamide nanocomposite hydrogels with enhanced mechanical and drug release properties

P. Zhang, X. Yang, P. Li, Y. Zhao and Q. J. Niu, Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 162 DOI: 10.1039/C9SM01985E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements