Green, tough, and heat-resistant: A GDL-induced strategy for starch-alginate hydrogels

Hydrogels fabricated by non-covalent interaction garnered significant attention for their eco-friendly and robust mechanical attributes, and are often used in food, medicine and other fields. Although starch-alginate hydrogels exhibit high adhesion and are environmentally sustainable, their applications are limited due to their low elasticity and hardness. Addressing this challenge, we introduce a solvent-induced strategy using glucolactone (GDL) to fabricate hydrogels with enhanced strength and thermal resilience. Utilizing corn starch with varying amylose contents, sodium alginate and calcium carbonate to prepare a double network structure. This GDL-induced hydrogel outperforms most previous starch-based hydrogels in mechanical robustness and thermal stability. Typical starch-alginate hydrogel had a homogeneous network structure and exhibited a high tensile stress of 407.57 KPa, and a high enthalpy value of 1857.67 J/g. This investigation furnishes a facile yet effective method for the synthesis of hydrogels with superior mechanical and thermal properties, thereby broadening the design landscape for starch-based hydrogels.