Oppositely charged polyelectrolytes form tough, self-healing, and rebuildable hydrogels
Feng Luo1, Tao Lin Sun, Tasuku Nakajima
1Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan.
Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
|March 27, 2015
Abstract:
A series of tough polyion complex hydrogels is synthesized by sequential homopolymerization of cationic and anionic monomers. Owing to the reversible interpolymer ionic bonding, the materials are self-healable under ambient conditions with the aid of saline solution. Furthermore, self-glued bulk hydrogels can be built from their microgels, which is promising for 3D/4D printing and the additive manufacturing of hydrogels.
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