Dual-faced borax mediated synthesis of self-healable hydrogels merging dynamic covalent bonding and micellization

Abstract

Intrinsic self-healing hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties are still difficult to achieve. Here, we presented a facile method to integrate dynamic boronate ester bonds and Pluronic F127 (PF127) micelle cross-links into one hydrogel system via a borax catalyzed thiol–ene click reaction and borax–diol chemistry. The hydrogel was capable of elongating up to 340% and self-healing approximately 90% of its initial stress within 24 h. Moreover, the hydrogel could endure a compressive strain of 80% without fracture, and exhibited excellent shape recovery and fatigue resistance ability as determined by the cyclic compressive loading–unloading test at 60% strain, providing a new facile route to design multifunctional hydrogels with spontaneous self-healing ability, good stretchability and excellent compressive properties.