Tough and highly stretchable polyacrylamide nanocomposite hydrogels with chitin nanocrystals

Chitin nanocrystals (CNCs) that were 10-20 nm wide and 100-500 nm long were synthetized via acidolysis and characterized with various methods. To avoid the flocculation of CNCs in the initiator solution during acrylamide polymerization, chitosan was selected as a surface modifier. The chitosan-modified CNCs were employed as multifunctional crosslinkers for the polyacrylamide (PAAm) nanocomposite (NC) hydrogels. The NC gels were tough and stretchable; for example, the maximum tensile strength and the elongation at break of the NC gels were 90 kPa and 3070%, respectively. The dynamic shear modulus of the NC gels was also significantly higher than that of the PAAm. The NC gels were nearly free of residual strain after 2000% elongation. The microstructures of all NC gels were porous, with a pore size of 20-100 μm. The maximum equilibrium swelling degree of the NC gels was 3800%. The improvement in the properties of the NC gels is attributed to the good dispersion of CNCs and the interfacial interactions in the composites. This work developed PAAm NC hydrogels with CNCs for application as absorbent or biomedical material due to the high mechanical properties, high absorb ability and good biocompatibility of CNCs and explored new applications for CNCs as well.