Issue 5, 2014

Multi-scale multi-mechanism design of tough hydrogels: building dissipation into stretchy networks

Abstract

As swollen polymer networks in water, hydrogels are usually brittle. However, hydrogels with high toughness play critical roles in many plant and animal tissues as well as in diverse engineering applications. Here we review the intrinsic mechanisms of a wide variety of tough hydrogels developed over the past few decades. We show that tough hydrogels generally possess mechanisms to dissipate substantial mechanical energy but still maintain high elasticity under deformation. The integrations and interactions of different mechanisms for dissipating energy and maintaining elasticity are essential to the design of tough hydrogels. A matrix that combines various mechanisms is constructed for the first time to guide the design of next-generation tough hydrogels. We further highlight that a particularly promising strategy for the design is to implement multiple mechanisms across multiple length scales into nano-, micro-, meso-, and macro-structures of hydrogels.

Graphical abstract: Multi-scale multi-mechanism design of tough hydrogels: building dissipation into stretchy networks

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
26 Aug. 2013
Accepted
25 Okt. 2013
First published
29 Okt. 2013

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 672-687

Multi-scale multi-mechanism design of tough hydrogels: building dissipation into stretchy networks

X. Zhao, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 672 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM52272E

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