Tough, rapid-recovery composite hydrogels fabricated via synergistic core-shell microgel covalent bonding and Fe3+coordination cross-linking.
We developed tough, rapid-recovery composite hydrogels that are fabricated via core-shell microgel covalent bonding and Fe3+dynamic metal coordination cross-linking. First, core-shell microgels are used as cross-linking agents and initiators to prepare homogeneous hydrogel networks with rapid recovery in the absence of an organic cross-linking agent. The toughness and recoverability of the composite hydrogels can be improved by adding the dynamic reversibility of ionic cross-linking. Owing to the synergistic effect of microgel covalent bonding, Fe3+coordination cross-linking, and H-bond cross-linking, the multi-cross-linked composite hydrogels exhibit excellent toughness and a fast recovery rate. These characteristics demonstrate that the dynamic reversibility of the ionic cross-linking can significantly improve the toughness and recoverability of the hydrogels. In addition, the core-shell microgels play a key role in toughening the hydrogels and accelerating their recovery by transferring stress to grafted polymer chains and homogenizing the hydrogel network.
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
Xuechen
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6779-6443
X
Liang
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
Yukun
Y
Deng
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn and University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
Xiaopeng
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2670-0289
X
Pei
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn and University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
Kankan
K
Zhai
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn.
Kun
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3573-4605
K
Xu
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn.
Ying
Y
Tan
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn.
Xinyuan
X
Gong
Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, P. R. China. xukun@ciac.ac.cn tanying@ciac.ac.cn.
Pixin
P
Wang