Superior hybrid hydrogels of polyacrylamide enhanced by bacterial cellulose nanofiber clusters

Hybrid polyacrylamide/bacterial cellulose nanofiber clusters (PAM/BC) hydrogels with high strength, toughness and recoverability were synthesized by in situ polymerization of acrylamide monomer in BC nanofiber clusters suspension. The hybrid gels exhibited an extremely large elongation at break of 2200%, and a high fracture stress of 1.35MPa. Additionally, the original length of hydrogels could be recovered after releasing the tensile force. Compressive results showed that the PAM/BC hybrid gels could reach a strain of about 99% without break, and was able to completely recover its original shape immediately after releasing the compression force. The compressive stress at 99% reached as high as 30MPa. Nearly no hysteresis in cyclic compressive tests was observed with these hybrid gels. The FT-IR, XRD and TGA analysis showed that hydrogen bonds between the PAM chains and BC nanofiber clusters mainly contributed to the superior mechanical properties of hybrid hydrogels. The cell viability results suggested that PAM/BC hybrid hydrogel was benign for biomedical application. These PAM/BC hydrogels offer a great promise as biomaterials such as bone and cartilage repair materials.