title: A Novel Design of Multi-Mechanoresponsive and Mechanically Strong Hydrogels.
abstract: A newly developed polyacrylamide-co-methyl acrylate/spiropyran (SP) hydrogel crosslinked by SP mechanophore demonstrates multi-stimuli-responsive and mechanically strong properties. The hydrogels not only exhibit thermo-, photo-, and mechano-induced color changes, but also achieve super-strong mechanical properties (tensile stress of 1.45 MPa, tensile strain of ≈600%, and fracture energy of 7300 J m-2). Due to a reversible structural transformation between spiropyran (a ring-close) and merocyanine (a ring-open) states, simple exposure of the hydrogels to white light can reverse color changes and restore mechanical properties. The new design approach for a new mechanoresponsive hydrogel is easily transformative to the development of other mechanophore-based hydrogels for sensing, imaging, and display applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Fengyu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Material Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
keywords: color changes; hydrogels; multi-stimuli-responsive; self-recovery; spiropyran mechanophores