title: Smart Hydrogels with Inhomogeneous Structures Assembled Using Nanoclay-Cross-Linked Hydrogel Subunits as Building Blocks.
abstract: A novel and facile assembly strategy has been successfully developed to construct smart nanocomposite (NC) hydrogels with inhomogeneous structures using nanoclay-cross-linked stimuli-responsive hydrogel subunits as building blocks via rearranged hydrogen bonding between polymers and clay nanosheets. The assembled thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide) (poly(NIPAM-co-AM)) hydrogels with various inhomogeneous structures exhibit excellent mechanical properties due to plenty of new hydrogen bonding interactions created at the interface for locking the NC hydrogel subunits, which are strong enough to tolerate external forces such as high levels of elongations and multicycles of swelling/deswelling operations. The proposed approach is featured with flexibility and designability to build assembled hydrogels with diverse architectures for achieving various responsive deformations, which are highly promising for stimuli-responsive manipulation such as actuation, encapsulation, and cargo transportation. Our assembly strategy creates new opportunities for further developing mechanically strong hydrogel systems with complex architectures that composed of diverse internal structures, multistimuli-responsive properties, and controllable shape deformation behaviors in the soft robots and actuators fields.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhuang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.|State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.|State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Jie
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.|State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University , No. 24, Southern 1 Section, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.|State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, P. R. China.|Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM) , Nanjing, Jiangsu 211816, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Liang-Yin
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Chu
keywords: actuators; hydrogels; hydrogen bonding; nanocomposite materials; stimuli-responsive materials