Strong and tough chitin hydrogel constructed by dehydration and rehydration strategy  

作　　者：Rui-Rui Liu Li-Bo Mao Shu-Hong Yu 

机构地区：[1]Division of Nanomaterials and Chemistry,Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale,Department of Chemistry,Institute of Biomimetic Materials and Chemistry,Anhui Engineering Laboratory of Biomimetic Materials,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026,China [2]Institute of Innovative Materials,Department of Materials Science and Engineering,Department of Chemistry,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen 518055,China

出　　处：《Nano Research》2024年第9期8192-8199,共8页纳米研究（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Nos.XDB0470303 and XDB0450402);the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Nos.2018YFE0202201 and 2021YFA0715700);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.22293044);the Major Basic Research Project of Anhui Province(No.2023z04020009).

摘　　要：As a renewable,biocompatible,biodegradable soft material,chitin hydrogels have better advantages in stability,antibacterial activity,antifouling,cost,immunogenicity,and so on than most polymer hydrogels.However,compared with other widely used polymer hydrogels with high strength and toughness,the practical applications of chitin-based hydrogels have been limited by their weak mechanical properties,such as cartilage repair and meniscus replacement.Here,we present the design and fabrication of chitin hydrogels with excellent mechanical strength and toughness by a dehydration and rehydration strategy.By sequential dehydration and rehydration processes,the crystalline domains in the chitin hydrogels can be properly controlled.With optimized crystallinity,the elastic modulus of the chitin hydrogels exceeds all previously reported values,and the fracture toughness is even comparable to some synthetic polymer hydrogels,while maintaining a high-water-content of about 80 wt.%.At the same water content,the mechanical properties of the chitin hydrogels are positively correlated with the hydrogel crystallinity,which proves that the change of mechanical properties of hydrogels is not simply dependent on weight concentration.The hydrogels can be further strengthened by incorporating other biopolymers that are intrinsically weak,which makes the hydrogels promising for applications in fields such as cartilage repair and meniscus replacement.Moreover,the hydrogels enable loading and release of water-soluble and poorly water-soluble drugs.This highly extendable strengthening and toughening strategy of chitin and chitin-based biopolymer hydrogels paves the way for their widely applications.

关 键 词：chitin hydrogel crystallinity REHYDRATION chemical transformation strong and tough 

分 类 号：O63[理学—高分子化学]