title: Enhanced mechanical performance of biocompatible hemicelluloses-based hydrogel via chain extension.
abstract: Hemicelluloses are widely used to prepare gel materials because of their renewability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Here, molecular chain extension of hemicelluloses was obtained in a two-step process. Composite hydrogels were prepared via free radical graft copolymerization of crosslinked quaternized hemicelluloses (CQH) and acrylic acid (AA) in the presence of crosslinking agent N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA). This chain extension strategy significantly improved the mechanical performance of the resulting hydrogels. The crosslinking density, compression modulus, and swelling capacities of hydrogels were tuned by changing the AA/CQH and MBA/CQH contents. Moreover, the biocompatibility test suggests that the hemicelluloses-based hydrogels exhibited no toxicity to cells and allowed cell growth. Taken together, these properties demonstrated that the composite hydrogels have potential applications in the fields of water absorbents, cell culture, and other functional biomaterials.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Xian-Ming
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Ge-Gu
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding, Hebei, 071001, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Dong
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Gen-Que
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Ya-Shuai
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.|State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Run-Cang
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Sun