title: Rapidly recoverable, anti-fatigue, super-tough double-network hydrogels reinforced by macromolecular microspheres.
abstract: In this study, a novel strategy was designed to prepare rapidly recoverable, anti-fatigue, super-tough double-network hydrogels by introducing macromolecular microspheres (MMs) as cross-linking centers for hydrophobic associations. MMs were prepared via emulsion polymerization using butyl acrylate (BA) as a main component and dicyclopentyl acrylate (DCPA) as a cross-linker. Then, a double-network (DN) hydrogel was prepared using gelatin as the first network and a copolymer of acrylamide and hexadecyl methacrylate stabilized by MMs as the second network. As a result, the DN hydrogels that were toughened by MMs exhibited an excellent fracture strength of 1.48 MPa and a fracture strain of 2100%. Moreover, the hydrogels exhibited rapid recoverability and fatigue resistance. Therefore, the strategy would open up a novel avenue for the toughening of DN hydrogels for biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiuyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lijie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guang Hui
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kuai
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, No. 2055, Yan'an Street, Changchun 130012, P. R. China. kuaiyu@ccut.edu.cn zhanghx@ccut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Huixuan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7914-192X
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang