Issue 10, 2019

Stretchy and strong polyurethane–urea supramolecular (PUUS) hydrogels with various stimulus-responsive behaviours: the effect of chain-extenders

Abstract

The development of an easy synthetic strategy combined with straightforward tailoring of physical properties and functionalities, such that optimal performance can be targeted for various applications, still remains challenging. Previously, we reported the construction of thermo- and water-responsive strong and tough supramolecular hydrogels based on the cooperatively enhancing effect between H-bonding and hydrophobic forces. Recently, the strategy was greatly simplified to a one-pot two-step approach. In this work, by simply changing the chain extenders used in the second step, different kinds of functional units are easily introduced into the hard segments in the main chain of the copolymers to endow the resultant strong and tough supramolecular hydrogels with various stimulus-responsive properties. A dynamic covalent bond (disulphide or imine bond, e.g. –S–S– or –C[double bond, length as m-dash]N–) in the main chain provides the resulting hydrogels with reduction or pH responsive degradation (gel-to-sol transition) on demand behaviors, respectively; the azobenzene unit endows the yielding hydrogels with UV-Vis controlled stiffness; the pyridine group containing supramolecular hydrogel shows metal ion responsive mechanical and fluorescent behavior. These results provide progress toward addressing the challenges of achieving structural and synthetic simplicity married with sophisticated functionalities.

Graphical abstract: Stretchy and strong polyurethane–urea supramolecular (PUUS) hydrogels with various stimulus-responsive behaviours: the effect of chain-extenders

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Okt 2018
Accepted
15 Nov 2018
First published
15 Nov 2018

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2019,7, 1734-1740

Stretchy and strong polyurethane–urea supramolecular (PUUS) hydrogels with various stimulus-responsive behaviours: the effect of chain-extenders

Q. Xia, L. Chen, Y. Zhu, Z. Shao and M. Guo, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2019, 7, 1734 DOI: 10.1039/C8TB02585A

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