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 Here 2019
Accepted
10 Du 2019
First published
13 Du 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

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