Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Weicheng Gao, Jie Chang, Xueping Li, Sidi Li, Yuwei Zhou, Xin Hou, Lixia Long, Jin Zhao, Xubo Yuan
Summary: By constructing a hydrophilic double-coating with gelatin and glycerol, the water retention capacity of hydrogels can be enhanced. The modified hydrogels achieve a weight retention ratio of 72.5% after 5 days at 25 degrees C and 40 RH%. This method does not affect the mechanical properties of the hydrogels and they still retain strong water retention capacity after loading.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Weijun Deng, Fucheng Wei, Jing Hu
Summary: This study proposes a strategy for developing strong and tough hydrogels by enhancing the interaction between the side groups on polymeric chains and the dispersing medium. Hydrogels are fabricated with a polyacrylamide-alginate double network in a choline chloride saturated solution. The hydrogels exhibit high transparency, toughness, fatigue resistance, self-healing, adhesion, as well as water retention, anti-freezing, and conductivity due to the strengthened hydrogen bonds within the dispersing medium. This research may inspire the development of tough and conductive gels for applications in e-skins, soft robots, and intelligent devices.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Jiahua Ni, Shaoting Lin, Zhao Qin, David Veysset, Xinyue Liu, Yuchen Sun, Alex J. Hsieh, Raul Radovitzky, Keith A. Nelson, Xuanhe Zhao
Summary: Nanofibrous hydrogels are commonly found in animal and plant bodies, and widely used in engineering applications. This study presents a bioinspired design for creating strong and fatigue-resistant nanofibrous hydrogels that mimic the natural bouligand structure, achieving high strength and toughness properties.
Article
Polymer Science
Leonid Iliasov, Andrey Shibaev, Irina Panova, Petr Kushchev, Olga Philippova, Alexander Yaroslavov
Summary: Six cross-linked copolymers were synthesized with sodium acrylate, N-acrylamide, starch fragments, and a cross-linker, potentially suitable for use in agriculture as superabsorbents. The copolymers formed hydrogel particles when swelled in a pH 6.5 aqueous buffer solution. The cross-linking degree controlled the swelling pressure of hydrogels and water-retaining properties of solid substrates with embedded hydrogels, providing important insights for the synthesis and optimization of polymeric superabsorbents.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xinyu Qu, Siying Wang, Ye Zhao, Han Huang, Qian Wang, Jinjun Shao, Wenjun Wang, Xiaochen Dong
Summary: A highly stretchable, tough, and adhesive bilayer composite hydrogel inspired by skin design was fabricated for strain sensing and wound dressing applications, demonstrating excellent mechanical properties and sensing sensitivity. With the synergistic effect of the bilayer structure, the composite hydrogel showed high stretchability, toughness, and adhesion, while the adhesion layer contained biological macromolecules to promote wound healing and inhibit bacterial growth. The bilayer composite hydrogel not only accurately detects human physiological activities as a strain sensor, but also accelerates wound recovery, showing great potential in health monitoring and wound treatment.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Rafael M. Madero-Castro, Sofia Calero, A. Ozgur Yazaydin
Summary: Dehydration of bioalcohols is a major cost factor in biofuel production, and this study investigates the liquid phase separation of water from methanol and ethanol in a siliceous MFI pervaporation membrane. Molecular dynamic simulations show that hydrogen bonding between water and alcohol molecules may hinder complete alcohol selectivity, but suggest the potential for functionalizing membrane surfaces to overcome this issue and improve separation efficiency.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Jun Huang, Youqi Wang, Ping Liu, Jinzhi Li, Min Song, Jiuyu Cui, Luxing Wei, Yonggan Yan, Jing Liu
Summary: This work presents a kneading-dough-inspired method for dispersing hydrophobic particles into water, forming stable suspensions. By mixing hydrophobic particles with polyethyleneimine (PEI) polymer solution, a dough-like mixture is formed, and a PEI-polyacrylamide (PEI/PAM) composite hydrogel is synthesized with photo or thermal curing, exhibiting self-healing ability and tunable mechanical properties.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Jing Yu, Qinhua Wang, Xiaofeng Pan, Xiaojuan Ma, Shilin Cao, Yonghao Ni
Summary: This study improved the water resistance and mechanical strength of hydrogels by attaching a hydrophobic coating on the surface. By combining multiple anti-drying mechanisms, the organohydrogel exhibited outstanding stability and could be used for monitoring human motion in ultra-low temperature environments.
ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xiangyu Li, Ye Tian, Panpan Zhang, Na Liu, Huajun Zhai, Jiujiang Ji, Shuaiheng Zhao, Yue Liu, Dake Xu, Fuhui Wang, Yen Wei, Lin Feng
Summary: A bio-inspired lotus-petiole-mimetic microstructured graphene/poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) solar evaporator is developed, achieving high evaporation rates and energy conversion efficiency using accurate control of supramolecular interactions. Molecular dynamics simulations provide insights into water evaporation behaviors, and the evaporator shows excellent performance in purifying complex contaminants in wastewater.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Han Liu, Long Yu, Bingqian Zhao, Yezhou Ni, Peng Gu, Hua Qiu, Wan Zhang, Kunlin Chen
Summary: A hybrid hydrogel with self-healing ability and environmental responsiveness has been developed in this study. This hydrogel exhibits excellent sensing and color-changing properties, making it suitable for monitoring human actions in wearable devices. The damaged parts of the hydrogel can self-repair due to the strong bonds among the polyacrylate, zinc ions, and microcapsules. Additionally, the hydrogel undergoes rapid color change under thermal or UV stimulus, enabling monitoring of human physiological health and achieving adaptive camouflage. This smart hybrid hydrogel has promising applications in human body monitoring, safety warning, adaptive camouflage, and artificial intelligence for wearable electronic devices.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C
(2022)
Article
Biophysics
Yang Li, Rongzhan Fu, Zhiguang Duan, Chenhui Zhu, Daidi Fan
Summary: The bilayer hydrogel constructed in this study is capable of preventing bacterial infection in situ and accelerating skin generation simultaneously. Its unique features include high antibacterial properties and adhesiveness, which can accelerate infected skin generation by promoting collagen deposition, among other mechanisms.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
(2022)
Article
Polymer Science
Liangpeng Zeng, Ziqi Liu, Jingliang Huang, Xiaolin Wang, Hui Guo, Wei-Hua Li
Summary: Recently invented hydrophobic hydrogels exhibit excellent anti-fouling ability, which is mainly attributed to their surface hydrophobicity, while excessive water content might be detrimental.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Jingjiang Wei, Fuqiang Wan, Pengchao Zhang, Zhihui Zeng, Hang Ping, Jingjing Xie, Zhaoyong Zou, Weimin Wang, Hao Xie, Zhijian Shen, Liwen Lei, Zhengyi Fu
Summary: Oyster reefs inspired the synthesis of a novel mineral hydrogel and the preparation of an ionic skin with excellent mechanosensing and thermosensing abilities. These technologies hold promising applications in fields like wearable sensors and soft intelligent robots.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Antara Sharma, Boonya Thongrom, Sumati Bhatia, Benjamin von Lospichl, Annalisa Addante, Simon Y. Graeber, Daniel Lauster, Marcus A. Mall, Michael Gradzielski, Rainer Haag
Summary: The mucus layer is a hydrogel network that covers mucosal surfaces of the human body, with important protective properties based on mucins. This study presents a synthetic route to create a library of compositionally defined mucus-inspired hydrogels (MIHs) with viscoelastic properties similar to human mucus.
MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wenjuan Zheng, Lian-Ping Wang, Xingxing Kuang, Yan Jin, Chongyang Shen
Summary: This study experimentally investigated the individual and coupled effects of soil-borne hydrogels (gel-like substances) and surfactants (surface active substances) on soil water retention. The results showed that hydrogels enhanced soil water retention due to increased solution viscosity and their hygroscopic property, while surfactants reduced soil water retention due to reduced surface tension. A modified model effectively described the soil water retention curves and provided an explanation for the enhanced water retention. This study improves our understanding of the mechanistic effects of viscosity and surface tension on soil water retention.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2022)