Super flexible, fatigue resistant, self-healing PVA/xylan/borax hydrogel with dual-crosslinked network

The high mechanical strength and self-healing properties of hydrogels are the focus of tissue engineering and biomedical research. Furthermore, the incompatibility between hydrogel toughness and self-healing has not been resolved. It is noteworthy that the double network (DN) hydrogels show great promise as a viable method for producing self-healing hydrogels with the above properties. The Xylan/PVA/Borax DN hydrogel was prepared by the one-pot method, shows various excellent performances, including strong strength (ca. 81 kPa), high toughness (ca.1652.42 kJ/m³), good self-recovery (ca. 79% recovery), and excellent self-healing properties (self-healing efficiency reached to 85.8% for 30 s). This study proposes a strategy to design high strength, high toughness, large extensibility, and self-healing properties hydrogels based on xylan.