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Hydrogels have been extensively used for tissue engineering applications due to their versatility in structure and physical properties, which can mimic native tissues. Although significant progress has been made toward designing hydrogels for soft tissue repair, engineering hydrogels that resemble load‐bearing tissues is still considered a great challenge due to their specific mechanophysical demands. Herein, microporous, tough, yet highly compressible poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)‐based hydrogels are reported for potential applications in repairing or replacing different load‐bearing tissues. The synergy of freeze‐thawing and the Hofmeister effect, which controlled the spatial arrangement and aggregation of polymer chains, facilitated the formation of microstructured frameworks with tunable porosity. While the maximum mechanical strength, toughness, and stretchability of the engineered hydrogel were ≈390 kPa, ≈388 kJ m−3, and ≈170%, respectively, Young's modulus based on compression testing wasfound to be in the range of ≈0.02–0.30 MPa, highlighting the all‐in‐one mechanically enriched nature of the hydrogel. Furthermore, the minimal swelling and degradation rate of the engineered hydrogel met the specific requirements for load‐bearing tissues. Finally, excellent antibacterial resistance as well as in vitro biocompatibility of the hydrogel demonstrates its potential for the replacement of load‐bearing tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple method was proposed to prepare a tough and ultra-extensible hydrogel with ultra-fast response to temperature and pH and a high potential to adsorb heavy metals by utilizing poly (N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAm), sodium methacrylate (SMA), and the crosslinking process using Laponite RDS clay. Transmission electron microscopy was used to examine the distribution of clay in the hydrogels. The hydrogels' exceptional mechanical and tensile qualities are a result of the precise physical crosslinking caused by Laponite RDS clay and the ultra-long polymer chains that were produced because of the selected polymerization conditions. A tiny quantity (1.5 mol%) of SMA co-monomer adds a strong pH response and improves the effectiveness of metal removal, whereas PNIPAm produces clearly defined temperature responsiveness. In the meantime, as the SMA content increased, the equilibrium swelling increased, but when the loading of Laponite RDS clay increased, it decreased. It has been shown that hydrogels can effectively adsorb Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions. The removal effectiveness and stability of the hydrogels were enhanced by adding SMA, with efficiency values reaching 99.93%. Given their great swelling, mechanical toughness, and high Cr(VI) removal efficiency, the investigated hydrogels appear highly suitable as an adsorbent for water treatment.Highlights: Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), sodium methacrylate were crosslinked by Laponite clay. Tough hydrogel with ultra-fast response to temperature and pH was prepared. The prepared gel has a high potential to adsorb Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions. Removal efficiency values up to 99.93% of Cr(VI) was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of lignin nanostructures where interfacial interactions enable enhanced entanglement of colloidal networks can broaden their applications in hydrogel‐based materials and light‐based 3D printing. Herein, an approach for fabricating surface‐active dendritic colloidal microparticles (DCMs) characterized by fibrous structures using nanostructured allylated lignin is proposed for the development of lignin‐based photocurable resins. With allyl‐terminated surface functionality of 0.61 mmol g−1, the entanglement between lignin‐DCM fibrils with a size of 1.4 µm successfully produces only lignin‐based hydrogels with structural integrity through photo‐crosslinking. The colloidal network of lignin dendricolloids reinforces the poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels during a digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing process by generating bicontinuous morphologies, resulting in six‐fold increases in toughness values with respect to the neat PEG hydrogel. The dual effectiveness of photoabsorption and free‐radical reactivity of lignin‐DCMs allow the light‐patterning of rather dilute PEG hydrogels (5–10%) with high geometric fidelity and structural complexity via DLP 3D printing. This study demonstrates a green and effective strategy for the design of 1D lignin‐DCMs that increases the versatility of the nanostructured biopolymer, opening up numerous opportunities for formulating functional hydrogels with robust structure‐property correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogels have been extensively used for tissue engineering applications due to their versatility in structure and physical properties, which can mimic native tissues. Although significant progress has been made toward designing hydrogels for soft tissue repair, engineering hydrogels that resemble load‐bearing tissues is still considered a great challenge due to their specific mechanophysical demands. Herein, microporous, tough, yet highly compressible poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)‐based hydrogels are reported for potential applications in repairing or replacing different load‐bearing tissues. The synergy of freeze‐thawing and the Hofmeister effect, which controlled the spatial arrangement and aggregation of polymer chains, facilitated the formation of microstructured frameworks with tunable porosity. While the maximum mechanical strength, toughness, and stretchability of the engineered hydrogel were ≈390 kPa, ≈388 kJ m−3, and ≈170%, respectively, Young's modulus based on compression testing wasfound to be in the range of ≈0.02–0.30 MPa, highlighting the all‐in‐one mechanically enriched nature of the hydrogel. Furthermore, the minimal swelling and degradation rate of the engineered hydrogel met the specific requirements for load‐bearing tissues. Finally, excellent antibacterial resistance as well as in vitro biocompatibility of the hydrogel demonstrates its potential for the replacement of load‐bearing tissues.

Tough hydrogels have emerged as a promising class of materials to target load‐bearing applications, where the material has to resist multiple cycles of extreme mechanical impact. A variety of chemical interactions and network architectures are used to enhance the mechanical properties and fracture mechanics of hydrogels making them stiffer and tougher. In recent years, the mechanical properties of tough, high‐performance hydrogels have been benchmarked, however, this is often incomplete as important variables like water content are largely ignored. In this review, the aim is to clarify the reported mechanical properties of state‐of‐the‐art tough hydrogels by providing a comprehensive library of fracture and mechanical property data. First, common methods for mechanical characterization of such high‐performance hydrogels are introduced. Then, various modes of energy dissipation to obtain tough hydrogels are discussed and used to categorize the individual datasets helping to asses the material's (fracture) mechanical properties. Finally, current applications are considered, tough high‐performance hydrogels are compared with existing materials, and promising future opportunities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Tough hydrogels have emerged as a promising class of materials to target load‐bearing applications, where the material has to resist multiple cycles of extreme mechanical impact. A variety of chemical interactions and network architectures are used to enhance the mechanical properties and fracture mechanics of hydrogels making them stiffer and tougher. In recent years, the mechanical properties of tough, high‐performance hydrogels have been benchmarked, however, this is often incomplete as important variables like water content are largely ignored. In this review, the aim is to clarify the reported mechanical properties of state‐of‐the‐art tough hydrogels by providing a comprehensive library of fracture and mechanical property data. First, common methods for mechanical characterization of such high‐performance hydrogels are introduced. Then, various modes of energy dissipation to obtain tough hydrogels are discussed and used to categorize the individual datasets helping to asses the material's (fracture) mechanical properties. Finally, current applications are considered, tough high‐performance hydrogels are compared with existing materials, and promising future opportunities are discussed.

Emerging soft ionotronics better match the human body mechanically and electrically compared to conventional rigid electronics. They hold great potential for human‐machine interfaces, wearable and implantable devices, and soft machines. Among various ionotronic devices, ionic junctions play critical roles in rectifying currents as electrical p–n junctions. Existing ionic junctions, however, are limited in electrical and mechanical performance, and are difficult to fabricate and degrade. Herein, the design, fabrication, and characterization of tough transient ionic junctions fabricated via 3D ionic microgel printing is reported. The 3D printing method demonstrates excellent printability and allows one to fabricate ionic junctions of various configurations with high fidelity. By combining ionic microgels, degradable networks, and highly charged biopolymers, the ionic junctions feature high stretchability (stretch limit 27), high fracture energy (>1000 Jm−2), excellent electrical performance (current rectification ratio >100), and transient stability (degrade in 1 week). A variety of ionotronic devices, including ionic diodes, ionic bipolar junction transistors, ionic full‐wave rectifiers, and ionic touchpads are further demonstrated. This study merges ionotronics, 3D printing, and degradable hydrogels, and will motivate the future development of high‐performance transient ionotronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of cost-effective, biocompatible soft wound dressings is highly desirable; however, conventional dressings are only designed for flat wounds, which creates difficulty with promising healing efficiency in complex practical conditions. Herein, we developed a tough, adhesive biomimetic hyaluronic acid methacryloyl hydrogels composed of chemically crosslinked hyaluronic acid methacryloyl (HAMA) network and poly(N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide) (PHEAA) network rich in multiple hydrogen bonding. Due to the multiple chemical crosslinking sites (acrylamide groups) of HAMA; the bulk HEMA/PHEAA hydrogels presented significant enhancements in mechanical properties (∼0.45 MPa) than common hyaluronic acid hydrogels (99% of cell viability). Based on these physicochemical features, we have demonstrated that this adhesive hydrogel, administered in the form of a designed patch, could be applied to wound tissue healing by promoting epithelialization, angiogenesis, and collagen deposition. We believe that our proposed biomimetic hydrogel design holds great potential for wound repair and our developed HAMA/PHEAA hydrogels are extremely promising for the next-generation tissue healings in emergency situations.

Conductive hydrogels have attracted much attention because of their adjustable mechanical properties and excellent electrical conductivity. However, the variability and conductivity of traditional conductive hydrogels will be greatly reduced in low temperature environment, which seriously affects their application range. In this study, we fabricated a dual network conductive hydrogel with frost resistance. Here, water and glycerol binary solvents are introduced into the hydrogel to give the hydrogel antifreezing properties. The double-network structure of PAA/CMCs-Ca2+(W-G) hydrogel can provide good tensile and energy dissipation properties. The hydrogel strain sensor has high sensitivity (strain coefficient is 3.294 in the range of 100 ~ 250%, strain coefficient is 6.986 in the range of 250 ~ 400%) and good stability. PAA/CMCs-Ca2+(W-G) hydrogel has a great potential application in human signal detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing polymer materials emerge as a class of new intelligent systems, but they are all covalently cross‐linked. Herein, an alternating growth strategy for enabling tough supramolecular hydrogels is described to integrate externally provided compounds to change their sizes, geometric shapes, mechanical properties, etc. The hydrogels have dynamic acid–base complex (ABC) structures made from acidic and basic monomers, in which the acid–base pairs equilibrate between ionic and nonionic states to show either strong electrostatic or weak acid–base interactions. The growth process includes swelling of acidic/basic monomers, polymerization of the absorbed monomers, and homogenization of the original and newborn polymers, in which the balance between electrostatic and acid–base interactions is reversibly shifted to enable the process. As a result of such repeatable growth cycles, the hydrogels can continuously expand without compromising material mechanical properties. The growing sub‐processes and the monomer compositions can be used to post‐modulate the structure and properties of the grown products. It is demonstrated that the hydrogels may be designed as artificial tissues capable of growth under force‐bearing states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogels are promising material candidates in engineering soft robotics, mechanical sensors, biomimetic regenerative medicine, etc. However, developing multinetwork hydrogels with high mechanical properties and excellent printability are still challenging. Here, a bifunctional phenol‐enabled sequential polymerization (BPSP) strategy is reported to fabricate high‐performance multinetwork hydrogels under the orthogonal catalysis of efficient ruthenium photochemistry. Benefiting from this bifunctional design, phenols can sequentially polymerize with typical monomers and themselves to fabricate various phenol‐containing polymers (Ph‐Ps) and Ph‐Ps‐based multinetwork tough hydrogels, respectively. The as‐prepared hydrogels have maximum stress of 0.75 MPa and toughness of 2.2 MJ m–3 under the critical strain of 800%. These property parameters are a maximum of 16 times higher than those of the phenol‐postmodified and phenol‐free hydrogels. Moreover, the rapid coupling polymerization of phenols can shorten the gelation times of hydrogels to as low as ≈4 s, which enables its printable property for customizable applications. As a proof of concept, a 3D scaffold‐like structure is optimized as highly sensitive mechanical sensors for detecting various human motions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, the development of tough hydrogel biomaterials is a challenging topic that has received much attention over the past few years. Recently, a method was developed to synthesize tough combinatorial poly(urethane‐isocyanurate) (PUI)‐type hydrogels by the trimerization of mixtures of NCO‐functionalized prepolymers. As this synthesis approach allows a large degree of freedom in terms of polymer network design with a high level of control over the polymer network structure, the resulting systems are ideally suited for studying structure–property relations in tough hydrogel systems. In this work, we aim to systematically investigate the influence of introducing a hydrophobic component into a PUI polymer network on the mechanical properties of the resulting PUI hydrogels. Additionally, the effect of (the degree of) crystallinity of the hydrophobic network component is investigated. For this, two series of combinatorial PUI hydrogels are synthesized, based on a hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) prepolymer and increasing amounts of either a crystallizable hydrophobic prepolymer (poly(ε‐caprolactone)) or an amorphous hydrophobic prepolymer (poly(propylene glycol)). It is shown that the toughness of amorphous PUI hydrogels is hardly influenced by the hydrophobic content, whereas the toughness of semi‐crystalline PUI hydrogels strongly increases with increasing hydrophobic content. Also, the toughness of the latter hydrogels increases further with increasing degree of crystallinity of the hydrogel. Finally, it is shown that the semi‐crystalline PUI hydrogels are promising materials for biomedical adhesive and coating applications, as well as for load‐bearing biomedical applications within the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. © 2022 Covestro Deutschland AG. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Industrial Chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal‐coordination mediated tough hydrogels have been considered as a promising materials for novel utilization in programmable actuation structures. However, the rate‐dependent mechanical behavior attributed to their intrinsic mechanical properties of mixed elasticity and viscosity, imposing a challenge for the realization of controllable deformations. In this work, the effect of stretch rate was incorporated into a variable fractional order model in order to describe and predict the rate‐dependent mechanical response of physically tough hydrogels. Firstly, we provide an iteration algorithm for model estimation and conduct simulations of the stress response under monotonic stretch to verify the applicability of proposed model. The performance of proposed model is compared with the existing model to validate its accuracy. Then, the present model is employed to describe the rate‐dependent stress response under cyclic loading. The change rule of related parameters with stretch rate is also unraveled by the present model, which is further utilized to test the model's predictive ability. Moreover, the physical meaning of variable order is qualitatively explored in conjunction with the evolution mechanism of dynamic bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogels have emerged as promising biomaterials for tissue regeneration; yet, their inherent swelling can cause deformation and reduced mechanical properties, posing challenges for practical applications in biomedical engineering. Traditional methods to reduce hydrogel swelling often involve complex synthesis procedures with limited flexibility. Inspired by nature's efficient designs, we present here the approach to improve hydrogel performance using 3D printing-assisted microstructure engineering. By utilizing polymerization-induced phase separation of hydrogel from copolymerization of gelatin methacrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (poly(GelMA-co-HEMA)) in the confined space during vat photopolymerization (VPP) 3D printing, we replicate the cuttlebone-like microstructure of hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties and swelling resistance. We demonstrate here a 4-fold increase in elastic modulus compared to bulk polymerization of poly(GelMA-co-HEMA), together with improved mechanical and dimensional stability. This method offers promising opportunities for practical biomedical and tissue engineering applications, overcoming previous limitations in the design and performance.

Soft-lithography is widely used to fabricate microstructured surfaces on plastics and elastomers for designable physical properties such as wetting and adhesions. However, it remains a big challenge to construct high-aspect-ratio microstructures on the surface of hydrogels due to the difficulty in demolding from the gel with low strength and stiffness. Demonstrated here is the engineering of tough hydrogels by soft-lithography to form well-defined micropillars. The mechanical properties of poly(acrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) hydrogels with dense hydrogen-bond associations severely depend on temperature, with Young's modulus increasing from 8.1 MPa at 15 °C to 821.8 MPa at -30 °C, enabling easy demolding at low temperatures. Arrays of micropillars are maintained on the surface of the gel, and can be used at room temperature when the gel restores soft and stretchable. The hydrogel also exhibits good shape-memory property, favoring tailoring the morphology with a switchable tilt angle of micropillars. Consequently, the hydrogel shows tunable wetting and adhesion properties, as manifested by varying contact angles and adhesion strengths. These surface properties can also be tuned by geometry and arrangement of micropillars. This facile strategy by harnessing tunable viscoelasticity of supramolecular hydrogels should be applicable to other soft materials, and broaden their applications in biomedical and engineering fields., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Hydrogels are a fascinating class of materials popular in numerous fields, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, soft robotics, and sensors, thanks to their 3D network porous structure containing a significant amount of water. However, traditional hydrogels exhibit poor mechanical strength, limiting their practical applications. Thus, many researchers have focused on the development of mechanically enhanced hydrogels. This review describes the design considerations for constructing tough hydrogels and some of the latest strategies in recent years. These tough hydrogels have an up‐and‐coming prospect and bring great hope to the fields of biomedicine and others. Nonetheless, it is still no small challenge to realize hydrogel materials that are tough, multifunctional, intelligent, and with zero defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forming carboxyl‐Fe3+ coordination bonds as physical crosslinks is an effective strategy to develop tough hydrogels. Considering the inhibition of ferric ions on free‐radical polymerization, these coordination bonds cannot be formed during the reaction, and a soaking process of preformed hydrogels is usually required for mechanical enhancement, resulting in uncontrollable gradient structure, long preparation time, and unnecessary waste of metallic ions. A facile strategy is reported here to prepare tough metallosupramolecular hydrogels by polymerization and in situ formation of coordination bonds with phosphates as the temporal ligands of Fe3+ ions. The phosphate ligands in the precursor solution form coordination complexes with the Fe3+ ions, which avoids the inhibition and ensures the polymerization. After swelling the resultant hydrogel in water, the ligands are substituted by carboxyl groups of the gel matrix due to the variation of local pH. The equilibrated hydrogel with carboxyl‐Fe3+ coordination bonds as the physical crosslinks possesses excellent mechanical properties that can be tuned over a wide range by adjusting the polymer compositions and the concentrations of phosphate ligands and Fe3+ ions. This strategy should be applicable to other systems to enable synthesis of functional hydrogels with Fe3+ ions as the additive toward specific applications in engineering and biomedical fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial shape-morphing hydrogels are emerging toward various applications, spanning from electronic skins to healthcare. However, the low freezing and drying tolerance of hydrogels hinder their practical applications in challenging environments, such as subzero temperatures and arid conditions. Herein, we report on a shape-morphing system of tough organohydrogels enabled by the spatially encoded rigid structures and its applications in conformal packaging of "island–bridge" stretchable electronics. To validate this method, programmable shape morphing of Fe (III) ion-stiffened Ca-alginate/polyacrylamide (PAAm) tough organohydrogels down to −50 °C, with long-term preservation of their 3D shapes at arid or even vacuum conditions, was successfully demonstrated, respectively. To further illustrate the potency of this approach, the as-made organohydrogels were employed as a material for the conformal packaging of non-stretchable rigid electronic components and highly stretchable liquid metal (galinstan) conductors, forming a so-called "island–bridge" stretchable circuit. The conformal packaging well addresses the mechanical mismatch between components with different elastic moduli. As such, the as-made stretchable shape-morphing device exhibits a remarkably high mechanical durability that can withstand strains as high as 1000% and possesses long-term stability required for applications under challenging conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of actuator materials, hydrogels that undergo large volume changes in response to external stimuli have been developed for a variety of promising applications. However, most conventional hydrogels are brittle and therefore rupture when they are stretched to moderate strains (~50%). Thus, gels to be used for actuators still require improved mechanical properties and actuation performance. In this study, we synthesized a tough and thermo-sensitive hydrogel with a large actuation force by forming interpenetrating networks between covalently crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and ionically crosslinked alginate. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) was used as a thermo-sensitive actuation material, and alginate was found to enhance the mechanical properties of the hydrogels. Due to the enhanced elastic modulus and energy dissipation in the hybrid gel, the toughness was increased by a factor of 60 over that of pure PNIPAAm gel. Further, based on the results showing that the hybrid gel exhibits an actuation force that is seven times higher than that of pure PNIPAAm gel, the hybrid gel is more applicable to real actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural gels are constrained by a limited number of building blocks, yet based on time and space organization, they perform diverse functions. In contrast, the properties of synthetic hydrogels are frequently tuned through substantial changes in their chemical make‐up, causing complex interplay between composition, structure, and properties. This work fabricates a series of hydrogels with identical compositions but disparate properties by selectively quenching the depth and path of a water vapor‐induced phase separation process. These hydrogels are solely comprised of short alkyl side‐modified polyvinyl alcohol at the same volume fraction, but they exhibit hierarchical differences across multiple length scales, including porous morphology (≈µm), hydrophobic clusters (≈10 nm), and molecular packing (subnm). The hierarchical discrepancy is explicitly related to the striking contrast in terms of turbidity, permeability, stretchability, and viscoelasticity, thus advancing the understanding of the relationship between multiscale structures and properties without interference from chemical formulations. In addition, the hydrogels exhibit excellent biocompatibility, acid‐aided degradability, in situ healability, and underwater malleability. This work exploits a design principle to imitate the hierarchically specific tenet in nature, that is, the spatiotemporal organization of a single type of polymer via kinetic arrest of network‐forming phase separation, rather than modulation of the chemical make‐ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adhesives can stably hold adherent components together. However, a simple design of a high‐performance printable tough adhesive (PTA) with instant fatigue‐resistant adhesion on various substrates is still a significant challenge. Here, the authors report a rapid design to meet this requirement that enables one‐step adhesion of PTA on wet and dry, porous, and nonporous surfaces low as 5 s. This design gives an interfacial toughness of ≈3000 J m−2 and comparable mechanical and fatigue‐resistant properties. The adhesive precursor can be used as an adhesive paint for bonding materials even underwater and maintains strong adhesion under several thousand cycles of large deformation or in a wide temperature range. Moreover, the PTA precursor is chemically stable and controllable, thus benefiting the printing of heterogeneous, 4D shape‐memory composites and a wearable electroluminescent sensor. It is anticipated that this rapid one‐step design of PTA opens new horizons to tough adhesion of diverse surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐resolution 3D‐printable hydrogels with high mechanical strength and biocompatibility are in great demand because of their potential applications in numerous fields. In this study, a material system comprising Pluronic F‐127 dimethacrylate (FDMA) is developed to function as a direct ink writing (DIW) hydrogel for 3D printing. FDMA is a triblock copolymer that transforms into micelles at elevated temperatures. The transformation increases the viscosity of FDMA and preserves its structure during DIW 3D printing, whereupon the printed structure is solidified through photopolymerization. Because of this viscosity shift, various functionalities can be incorporated through the addition of other materials in the solution state. Acrylic acid is incorporated into the pregel solution to enhance the mechanical strength, because the carboxylate group of poly(acrylic acid) ionically crosslinks with Fe3+, increasing the toughness of the DIW hydrogel 37 times to 2.46 MJ m−3. Tough conductive hydrogels are also 3D printed by homogenizing poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate into the pregel solution. Furthermore, the FDMA platform developed herein uses DIW, which facilitates multicartridges 3D printing, and because all the materials included are biocompatible, the platform may be used to fabricate complex structures for biological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological tissues hinge on blood perfusion and mechanical toughness to function. Injectable hydrogels that possess both high permeability and toughness have profound impacts on regenerative medicine but remain a long‐standing challenge. To address this issue, injectable, pore‐forming double‐network hydrogels are fabricated by orchestrating stepwise gelation and phase separation processes. The interconnected pores of the resulting hydrogels enable direct medium perfusion through organ‐sized matrices. The hydrogels are amenable to cell encapsulation and delivery while promoting cell proliferation and spreading. They are also pore insensitive, tough, and fatigue resistant. When tested in biomimetic perfusion bioreactors, the hydrogels maintain physical integrity under prolonged, high‐frequency biomechanical stimulations (>6000 000 cycles at 120 Hz). The excellent biomechanical performance suggests the great potential of the new injectable hydrogel technology for repairing mechanically dynamic tissues, such as vocal folds, and other applications, such as tissue engineering, biofabrication, organs‐on‐chips, drug delivery, and disease modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogels possess unique features such as softness, wetness, responsiveness, and biocompatibility, making them highly suitable for biointegrated applications that have close interactions with living organisms. However, conventional man-made hydrogels are usually soft and brittle, making them inferior to the mechanically robust biological hydrogels. To ensure reliable and durable operation of biointegrated wearable and implantable devices, mechanical matching and shape adaptivity of hydrogels to tissues and organs are essential. Recent advances in polymer science and processing technologies have enabled mechanical engineering and shaping of hydrogels for various biointegrated applications. In this review, polymer network structuring strategies at micro/nanoscales for toughening hydrogels are summarized, and representative mechanical functionalities that exist in biological materials but are not easily achieved in synthetic hydrogels are further discussed. Three categories of processing technologies, namely, 3D printing, spinning, and coating for fabrication of tough hydrogel constructs with complex shapes are reviewed, and the corresponding hydrogel toughening strategies are also highlighted. These developments enable adaptive fabrication of mechanically robust and functional hydrogel devices, and promote application of hydrogels in the fields of biomedical engineering, bioelectronics, and soft robotics., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Hydrogel‐based soft electronics (HSE) is promising as implantable devices due to the similarity of hydrogel substrates to biologic tissues. Most existing HSE devices are based on conducting hydrogels that usually have weak mechanical properties, low conductivity, and poor patternability. Reported here is an HSE with good mechanical performance, high sensitivity, and versatile functions by stencil printing of liquid metal on a tough hydrogel, facilitating integration of multiple sensing units. Self‐shaping ability is imparted to the HSE by creating gradient structure in the hydrogel substrate. The resultant HSE actively deforms into 3D configurations with zero or nonzero Gaussian curvature to fix on objects or organs with sophisticated geometries and maintains the sensing functions. The versatilities and potential applications of this HSE are demonstrated by monitoring motions of a rice field eel and beatings of a rabbit heart. Such HSE based on morphing substrate should pave the way for implantable electronics with better fixation and interfacial contact with the organs. The concept of morphing hydrogel devices can be extended to other soft electronics with responsive polymer films or elastomers as the substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural polysaccharides (NPS) are regarded as biomolecular and structural components for preparing high‐performance tough hydrogels. But the one‐step fabrication of NPS‐containing hydrogels in seconds and the template‐free design of complicated high‐resolution structures are still significant challenges in this field. To meet these requirements, various NPS‐containing tough hydrogels are fabricated and processed into 2D/3D structures via the combination of Ru(bpy)32+‐mediated photochemistry and extrusion 3D printing technique. The whole fabrication process is one‐step, completed in tens of seconds under visible light irradiation. It is found that the used NPS plays a key role in achieving the fabrication of high‐performance structured tough hydrogels. The high reactivity of functional groups in the used NPS can shorten their gelation times. Long rigid chains of the used NPS, their hierarchical assemblies, and contrasting multinetworks benefit from the efficient dissipation of mechanical energy and enhancement of its operational stability. Strong supramolecular interactions enable hydrogel precursors to have high viscosities, therefore providing good controllability to design high‐resolution and complicated tough hydrogel structures via extrusion 3D printing. It is anticipated that this straightforward fabrication strategy and findings will open new horizons for NPS‐containing materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic hydrogels are unique tissue mimics but rarely reproduce the strain‐stiffening properties of native tissues. This mechanical mismatch impairs the performance of hydrogels in practical applications. Inspired by the crimped structure of collagenous tissues, a series of strain‐stiffening hydrogels composed of curved parallel fibers are developed. These fibers are constructed from a bundle of intertwisted nanofibrils composed of short alkyl side chain‐modified polymer chains. This hierarchical organization enables exquisitely cascaded deformation that facilitates soft‐to‐firm and resilience‐to‐viscoelasticity transitions, thus synergically mimicking the strain‐adaptive stiffening and damping behaviors of natural tissues. Together with structural evolution and a constitutive model, rationally tuning the tortuosity and flexibility of the curved fibers produces a diverse combination of strain‐stiffening properties and unprecedented penetration into the regions of several tissues. The crimped structure and the resultant stiffening properties constitute major improvements to nanofiber‐based scaffolds for use in collagenous tissue repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, doubly physically crosslinked hydrogels were synthesized, based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) containing 10 mol% of methacrylate co-monomer, in which nano-platelets of hectorite clay acted as the primary strong physical crosslinker, and trivalent cations La3+, Fe3+, and Al3+ as an additional dynamic one. Due to their excellent mechanical and tensile properties, such gels might be of interest as advanced structural materials for soft robotics. Of especial scientific interest was the comparison of the seemingly similar trivalent cations embedded in analogous gels, where their different bonding to carboxylate made dramatic differences concerning the material properties: La3+—purely electrostatic and highly dynamic bonding, Fe3+—with tendency to coordination-covalent-, and Al3+—with a rather covalent bonding. The cations incorporated into the hydrogels caused a marked, or even very strong improvement of tensile toughness, which in case of La3+ occurred without reducing the extensibility. All the cations expectedly raised the modulus: the effect was most pronounced with Al3+, which tends to covalent bonding. Most importantly, all the cations improved the kinetics of internal self-healing (self-recovery) of the gels, which was fastest with the dynamically (purely electrostatically) bonding La3+ (complete recovery of properties in 1 h). All the cations were incorporated via impregnation of precursor gels. An original synthesis aspect was, that the impregnation was conducted for a brief period of time, which was found necessary to achieve maximum modulus (the modulus dropped again at longer times). In this way, a non-stoichiometric (usually sub-stoichiometric) amount was incorporated, which made a subsequent extraction of cation excess unnecessary. Additionally, the non-stoichiometry helped the self-healing (network reorganization), which was most striking in case of the rather covalently bonding Al-impregnated gel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mimicking the natural actuating systems artificially provides ample opportunities in the field of soft robotics. In this domain, recent advancements in tough hydrogels along with advanced manufacturing techniques have offered us new tools for creating hybrid and soft artificial muscles that resemble the attributes of natural muscles and biological organisms. This review article provides a summary of the recent developments in the field of hydrogel-based actuators and soft artificial muscles and presents a current account of their emerging applications. Further, the fundamentals behind the actuation of hydrogels are discussed with a focus on hydrogels swelling, diffusion, and mechanical behaviour. The design details of different tough hydrogel systems are highlighted, and their physical and mechanical properties are quantitatively compared with biological tissues. Finally, a brief conclusion is provided with remarks on the remaining challenges in this field.

In the field of actuator materials, hydrogels that undergo large volume changes in response to external stimuli have been developed for a variety of promising applications. However, most conventional hydrogels are brittle and therefore rupture when they are stretched to moderate strains (~50%). Thus, gels to be used for actuators still require improved mechanical properties and actuation performance. In this study, we synthesized a tough and thermo-sensitive hydrogel with a large actuation force by forming interpenetrating networks between covalently crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and ionically crosslinked alginate. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) was used as a thermo-sensitive actuation material, and alginate was found to enhance the mechanical properties of the hydrogels. Due to the enhanced elastic modulus and energy dissipation in the hybrid gel, the toughness was increased by a factor of 60 over that of pure PNIPAAm gel. Further, based on the results showing that the hybrid gel exhibits an actuation force that is seven times higher than that of pure PNIPAAm gel, the hybrid gel is more applicable to real actuators.

Artificial shape-morphing hydrogels are emerging toward various applications, spanning from electronic skins to healthcare. However, the low freezing and drying tolerance of hydrogels hinder their practical applications in challenging environments, such as subzero temperatures and arid conditions. Herein, we report on a shape-morphing system of tough organohydrogels enabled by the spatially encoded rigid structures and its applications in conformal packaging of “island–bridge” stretchable electronics. To validate this method, programmable shape morphing of Fe (III) ion-stiffened Ca-alginate/polyacrylamide (PAAm) tough organohydrogels down to −50 °C, with long-term preservation of their 3D shapes at arid or even vacuum conditions, was successfully demonstrated, respectively. To further illustrate the potency of this approach, the as-made organohydrogels were employed as a material for the conformal packaging of non-stretchable rigid electronic components and highly stretchable liquid metal (galinstan) conductors, forming a so-called “island–bridge” stretchable circuit. The conformal packaging well addresses the mechanical mismatch between components with different elastic moduli. As such, the as-made stretchable shape-morphing device exhibits a remarkably high mechanical durability that can withstand strains as high as 1000% and possesses long-term stability required for applications under challenging conditions.

Information encryption platforms with reliable encryption performance, excellent mechanical performance, and high water retention capacity are highly desired. In this study, a tough double-network hydrogel is designed using the first network of a polyion complex containing lanthanide complexes via one-pot polymerization and the second network of a poly (N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide) (PHEAA) obtained by deep eutectic solvent (DES)-assisted introduction and subsequent photopolymerization. In this system, the pH-induced shape memory function and pH-/wavelength-dependent fluorescence allow the use of the prepared hydrogel as a dual-encryption platform. Owing to its high response reversibility, the hydrogel-based platform exhibits both a high security level and the advantages of rewritability, reprogrammability, and reusability. Additionally, the excellent mechanical properties and water retention capacity owing to the solvent exchange process involving the low-volatility solvent DES and the resulting introduction of the second network of PHEAA offer high practical application value for the hydrogel-based dual encryption platform, demonstrating its potential for information security protection., (© 2023 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

We investigated the mechanical and structural properties of composite hydrogels composed of chitosan nanofiber (ChsNF), positively charged alumina-coated silica (ac-SiO2) nanoparticles, carboxylated poly (vinyl alcohol) (cPVA), and borax. ChsNF/cPVA/borax hydrogels without ac-SiO2 exhibited high Young’s modulus but poor elongation, whereas cPVA/ac-SiO2/borax hydrogels without ChsNF had moderate Young’s modulus but high elongation. ChsNF/ac-SiO2/cPVA/borax hydrogels using both ChsNF and ac-SiO2 as reinforcement agents exhibited high extensibility (930%) and high Young′s modulus beyond 1 MPa at a high ac-SiO2 concentration. The network was formed by multiple crosslinking such as the complexation between borate and cPVA, the ionic complexation between ac-SiO2 and cPVA, and the hydrogen bond between ChsNF and cPVA. Structural analysis by synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering revealed that the nanostructural inhomogeneity in ChsNF/ac-SiO2/cPVA/borax hydrogel was suppressed compared to those of the ChsNF/cPVA/borax and cPVA/ac-SiO2/borax hydrogels.

The design and fabrication of tough and fluorescent hydrogels still remains as a challenging problem due to the poor mechanical property and water-induced luminescence quenching effect. Here, a new strategy for developing tough and fluorescent hydrogels was proposed by incorporating 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-propyl methacrylate (MPS)-functionalized upconversion (UC) fluorescent NaREF4:Ln3+@NaYF4 core–shell nanoparticles (MPS-CSNPs) into agar/poly-(N-(hydroxyethyl)-acrylamide) (agar/pHEAA) double-network hydrogels, producing agar/pHEAA@MPS-CSNPs gels. Three typical agar/pHEAA@MPS-CSNPs gels with RGB-emitting fluorescence were fabricated to exhibit a combination of extraordinary mechanical properties, including high strength (fracture stress of 2.4 MPa), extensibility (fracture strain of 5.6), stiffness (elastic modulus of 1.9 MPa), and toughness (tearing energy of 11000 J/m2), fast self-recovery (47%/23% toughness/stiffness), excellent self-healing property (self-healing tensile stress/strain of 0.9 MPa/0.9), and superior interfacial toughness of 1100–2000 J/m2 on various solid surfaces. In parallel, the full-color UC fluorescence of the hydrogels can be readily tuned from primary RGB colors to any secondary color (even to white color) by simply changing the types and relative ratios of single or multiple MPS-CSNPs. Agar/pHEAA@MPS-CSNPs hydrogels can also retain long fluorescence stability up to 60 days in a dry storage state. Mechanical enhancement and tunable fluorescence in agar/pHEAA@MPS-CSNPs gels are attributed to hybrid cross-linking effects from covalent bonds between abundant vinyl groups on MPS-CSNPs and the second pHEAA network and noncovalent bonds between and within both agar and pHEAA networks. Taking advantage of highly tough, surface adhesion, and self-healing properties, we further fabricated an agar/pHEAA hydrogel film containing fluorescence-responsive patterns for potential anticounterfeiting. We also envision that the agar/pHEAA@MPS-CSNPs hydrogels hold great potential for developing next-generation tough and fluorescent hydrogels for imaging, biosensing, and other optical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of tough hydrogels is an essential but challenging topic in biomaterials research that has received much attention over the past years. By the combinatorial synthesis of polymer networks and hydrogels based on prepolymers with different properties, new materials with widely varying characteristics and unexpected properties may be identified. In this paper, we report on the properties of combinatorial poly(urethane-isocyanurate) (PUI) type polymer networks that were synthesized by the trimerization of mixtures of NCO-functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(propylene gylcol) (PPG), poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) prepolymers in solution. The resulting polymer networks showed widely varying material properties. Combinatorial PUI networks containing at least one hydrophilic PEG component showed high water uptakes of >100 wt%. The resulting hydrogels demonstrated elastic moduli of up to 10.1 MPa, ultimate tensile strengths of up to 9.8 MPa, elongation at break values of up to 624.0% and toughness values of up to 53.4 MJ m−3. These values are exceptionally high and show that combinatorial PUI hydrogels are among the toughest hydrogels reported in the literature. Also, the simple two-step synthesis and wide range of suitable starting materials make this synthesis method more versatile and widely applicable than the existing methods for synthesizing tough hydrogels. An important finding of this work is that the presence of a hydrophobic network component significantly enhances the toughness and tensile strength of the combinatorial PUI hydrogels in the hydrated state. This enhancement is the largest when the hydrophobic network component is crystallizable in nature. In fact, the PUI hydrogels containing a crystallizable hydrophobic network component are shown to be semi-crystalline in the water-swollen state. Due to their high toughness values in the water-swollen state together with their water uptake values, elastic moduli and ultimate tensile strengths, the developed hydrogels are expected to be promising materials for biomedical coating- and adhesive applications, as well as for tissue-engineering. The development of tough hydrogels is a challenging topic that has received much attention over the past years. At present, double network type hydrogels are considered state-of-the-art in the field, demonstrating toughness values of several tens of MJ m−3. However, in terms of ease and versatility of the synthesis method, the possibilities are limited using a double network approach. In this work, we present combinatorial poly(urethane-isocyanurate) type polymer networks and hydrogels, synthesized by the trimerization of mixtures of NCO-functionalized prepolymers. The resulting hydrogels demonstrate exceptionally high toughness values of up to 53 MJ m−3, while the synthesis method is versatile and widely applicable. This new class of hydrogels is therefore considered highly promising in the future development of load-bearing biomaterials. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many biological tissues including cartilage and tendons are composed of polymeric hydrogels, which exhibit high toughness and rapid self‐recovery. However, developing hydrogels with both high toughness and rapid recovery remains a challenge. Inspired by the nacre of abalone shell, two non‐covalent cross‐linkers (Al3+ and diethylenetriamine [DETA]) with different relaxation times are introduced into a polyacrylic acid network. Compared with mono cross‐linked hydrogels, the dual physical cross‐linked hydrogel exhibits both high toughness (work of extension at fracture up to 8.0 MJ m−3) and rapid self‐recovery ability without loss of extensibility. Strong carboxylate‐DETA ionic cross‐links with longer relaxation time endow the hydrogels with high strength and help to localize the reformation of carboxylate‐Al3+ coordinate bonds; weak carboxylate‐Al3+ coordinate bonds with shorter relaxation time dissociate and reform to dissipate energy. Therefore, the hydrogels can dissipate massive energy effectively without any residual strain. More notably, the toughness and hysteresis of hydrogels can be completely recovered in 20 min. This finding unravels a new path to reinforce the hydrogels by the cooperation of different non‐covalent interactions, which can be applied in more material systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, the global use and market of contact lenses have expanded steadily. Due to the many demands on material properties (e.g. mechanical, optical and biological), the development of novel contact lens materials is challenging. Specifically, the ideal combination of high equilibrium water content, high toughness in the hydrated state and low protein adsorption is difficult to realize. In this work, poly(ethylene glycol)‐based poly(urethane isocyanurate) (PEG PUI) type hydrogels that combine the above important properties are presented as a new class of materials for contact lens applications. It is shown that these PEG PUI hydrogels demonstrate high toughness values in the hydrated state ranging from 98 to 226 kJ m−3 and elastic moduli ranging from 0.8 to 17.2 MPa for networks with equilibrium water contents ranging from 76.3 to 16.1 wt%. These hydrogels also demonstrate transmittance values >90% across the visible spectrum, clarities close to 100% in most cases and refractive indices ranging from 1.48 to 1.36. Importantly, these hydrogels are non‐cytotoxic and demonstrate lower bovine serum albumin adsorption values than several commercial contact lenses of 0.24 to 0.65 mg g−1 compared to 0.55 to 1.38 mg g−1 after 24 h, respectively. This combination of high equilibrium water content, high toughness in the hydrated state and low protein adsorption is exceptional. These properties can be attributed to the PEG PUI network structure: the use of a PEG polymeric backbone provides hydrophilicity and chemical inertness while the PUI‐type crosslinking units provide high toughness in the hydrated state. © 2019 The Authors. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter reviews the preparation, structures, properties, and applications of tough and responsive hydrogels crosslinked by triblock copolymer micelles. An amphiphilic triblock copolymer, Pluronic F127, is functionalized with reactive groups. The functional F127 chains form polyfunctional micelles in aqueous solution, which are used for reaction with hydrophilic monomers or polymer chains to form hydrophobically crosslinked network. Free radical polymerization, host-guest interaction, and dynamic bonds have been utilized to connect the polymer chains with the reactive micelle coronae. The obtained polymer hydrogels show outstanding strength and toughness, with the micelles serving as energy dissipation centers. The structural evolution and energy dissipation mechanisms have been investigated in detail. By incorporating functional monomers into the network, a series of functional hydrogels responsive to pH, salt, electric field, and temperature have been developed. The hydrogels have been utilized as building blocks to fabricate soft actuators, shape-morphing devices, and biomaterials for tissue repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their outstanding physical and mechanical properties, double-network (DN) hydrogels have gained a most attention among various synthetic tough hydrogels. The Mullins effect and buckling instability are two frequent phenomena that may occur simultaneously in slender DN hydrogel structures as high load-bearing candidates. The swelling/deswelling degree of the DN hydrogel affects the coupling phenomena. It is essential to understanding the interplay between these behaviors. In this work, a physically based damage constitutive model for a DN polymer under water-diffusion equilibrium and cyclic loadings is developed. This theory of coupled swelling and load-induced deformations show good capability in capturing the Mullins effect of swollen DN hydrogels and the corresponding swelling ratio. The model parameters are determined by fitting experimental data of a freely swollen DN hydrogel under cyclic compression. Based on the constitutive model and determined parameters, the buckling instability of DN hydrogel beams is studied via the analytical formula of incremental modulus. The stability diagrams of the DN hydrogel beams under virgin loading and reloading are presented. The influences of stress softening, strain stiffening and chemical potential on buckling conditions for compressive stress and slenderness ratio are thoroughly analyzed. It demonstrates that the stress softening is dramatically against the stability of the beam, but the strain-stiffening effect would conversely help widen the stable range. Besides, it is found that a DN gel beam immersed in a sufficient low chemical potential environment has better buckling stability. These theoretical results are valuable in the preparation and structural design of DN hydrogels for repeated use purpose. • A constitutive model for double-network (DN) polymers under swelling and cyclic loads. • Global instability diagrams of DN hydrogel beams with various damage degrees. • Analysis of impacts of the Mullins effect and water content on buckling conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, hydrogels have attracted considerable attention as promising biomedical materials. However, conventional hydrogels require improved mechanical properties, such as brittleness, which significantly limits their widespread use. Recently, hydrogels with remarkably improved toughness have been developed; however, their low biocompatibility must be addressed. In this study, we developed a tough graphene hybrid hydrogel with nanostructures. The resultant hydrogel exhibited remarkable mechanical properties while representing an aligned nanostructure that resembled the extracellular matrix of soft tissue. Owing to the synergistic effect of the topographical properties, and the enhanced biochemical properties, the graphene hybrid hydrogel had excellent stretchability, resilience, toughness, and biocompatibility. Furthermore, the hydrogel displayed outstanding tissue regeneration capabilities (e.g., skin and tendons). Overall, the proposed graphene hybrid tough hydrogel may provide significant insights into the application of tough hydrogels in tissue regeneration.

Hydrogels present a great number of advantages, such as their swelling capacity or their capability to mimic tissues, which make them very interesting biomaterials. However, one of their main disadvantages is their lack of good mechanical properties, which could limit some of their applications. Several strategies have been carried out to develop hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties, but many of the suggested synthetic pathways to improve this property are expensive and time consuming. In this work, we studied an easy synthetic path to produce tough hydrogels based on different maleic anhydride copolymers crosslinked with polyethylenglycol. The effect of the comonomers in the mechanical properties has been studied, their excellent mechanical properties, good swelling behavior and thermal stability being remarkable. In addition, in order to evaluate their possible applications as scaffolds or in wound healing applications, microsized fibers have been fabricated by electrospinning.

Polymer network structures in the design of bilayer hydrogels for oral drug delivery systems contribute to the mechanical stability as well as the stimulus responsive drug release. We report a strategy to improve the stability of polyelectrolyte layer interfaces in bilayer hydrogels by employing concepts from tough interpenetrating hydrogel network design. Polyvinyl alcohol as the neutral substrate and Polyacrylic acid as the pH-sensitive layer were used to prepare bilayers capable of pH-sensitive bending behavior, and inverse double network structures were compared to conventional thin film coated bilayers in this study. The morphology of the bilayers observed after exposure to stimulus revealed that the polyacrylic acid layer was fragmented in conventional thin films. The delamination of the coating also had an adverse impact on bending behavior. Additionally, bilayers with inverse double network structure had a better pH-sensitive swelling behavior which was lacking in regular thin films. Controllable, pH-specific drug release behavior was a direct benefit of using the inverse double network structure, and was demonstrated by controlled vancomycin release under different pHs chosen to simulate the physiological milieu of exposure corresponding to hydrogel passage along the gastrointestinal tract. Additionally, the inverse double networks showed improved mucoadhesive properties and mechanical stability compared to the thin film bilayers. The use of inverse double network structured hydrogels has many potential applications in improving bilayer hydrogel stability; specifically, for drug delivery systems, designing hydrogel origamis, and to prepare soft material actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, strong polymer-based hydrogels have been intensively investigated. However, the development of tough protein hydrogels with controlled degradation for bone regeneration has rarely been reported. Here, regenerated silk fibroin/gelatin (RSF/G) hydrogels with both strength and controlled degradation are prepared via physically and chemically double-crosslinked networks. As a representative example, the 9%RSF/3%G hydrogel shows approximately 80% elongation and a compressive and tensile modulus of up to 0.25 and 0.21 MPa, respectively. It also shows a degradation rate that can be adjusted to approximately three months in vivo, a value between that of the rapidly degrading gelatin hydrogel and the slowly degrading RSF hydrogel. The 9%RSF/3%G hydrogel has good biocompatibility and promotes the proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow--derived stem cells compared with the control and pure RSF hydrogels. At 12 weeks after implantation of the gel in a calvarial defect, micro-computed tomography shows greater bone volume and bone mineral density in the 9%RSF/3%G group. More importantly, histology reveals more mineralization and enhancements in the quality and rate of bone regeneration with less of a tissue response in the 9%RSF/3%G group. These results indicate the promising potential of this tough protein hydrogel with controlled degradation for bone regeneration applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the strategy of dynamic metal-coordination for improving mechanical properties, a further ideal was taken to prepare the tough hydrogels with the combination of self-crosslinking monomer and metal-coordination complexes. Herein, a series of hydrogels of poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid-co- N -hydroxymethyl acrylamide) (P(AM-co-AAc-co-NMAM)) consisting the chemical crosslinking induced by NMAM units and the physical crosslinking derived from the coordination complexes of carboxyl-Fe3+ were prepared. The molecular structure was investigated with the ATR-FTIR, Raman and UV-vis spectra. These hydrogels with different water content of 57–93% possess good mechanical performances. The optimal hydrogels possess high tensile strength (8.56 MPa), prominent modulus (15.5 MPa), remarkable toughness (37.85 MJ/m3) and superb tearing energy (7062 J/m2). The tough hydrogels also display excellent self-recovery (95% toughness recovery within 50 min), pH-triggered healing, shape memory and plasticity abilities. These hydrogels having high strength and toughness may broaden range of potential applications in load-bearing soft actuators, flexible electronics, etc. Image 1 • A series of novel hydrogels were fabricated by introducing metal-coordination interaction and self-crosslinking. • The hydrogels display outstanding mechanical properties. • The hydrogels possess excellent self-recovery, pH-triggered healing and shape memory abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, a micro-mechanically based constitutive model is presented to describe stress softening and self-healing in alginate-polyacrylamide (PAAm) double network (DN) hydrogels. The stress softening phenomenon in alginate-PAAm DN hydrogels under cyclical deformation is assumed to be the result of the rupture of chain linkages. Therefore, the network evolution method [Dargazany and Itskov, International Journal of Solids and Structures , 2009, 46 , 2967] is used to characterize stress softening. The polymer matrix is initially decomposed into reversible and irreversible polymer networks. To model stress softening, the entropic energy of a polymer chain and the chain distribution are taken into account for each network. Unlike conventional DN hydrogels, after deformation alginate-PAAm hydrogels show self-healing. The rate of self-healing is associated with both intermolecular forces and the duration of storage of the samples in a thermal chamber. Broken chain linkages are assumed to rebond due to intermolecular forces and heating. Chemical reaction kinetics and heat transfer equations are utilized to calculate the quantity of the reversible cross-linking rebonding. This model contains few material parameters and demonstrates good agreement with experimental data in stress softening and self-healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multifunctional double network (DN) soft hydrogels reported here are highly swellable and stretchable pH‐responsive smart hydrogel materials with sufficient strength and self‐healing properties. Such multifunctional hydrogels are achieved using double crosslinking structures with multiple physical and chemical crosslinks. They consist of a copolymer network of acrylamide (AM) and sodium acrylate (Na‐AA) and other reversible network of poly(vinyl alcohol)–borax complex. They were characterized by Fourier transform IR analysis and studied for their hydrogen bonding and ionic interaction. The degree of equilibrium swelling was observed to be as high as 5959% (at pH 7.0) for a hydrogel with AM/Na‐AA = 25/75 wt% in the network (GS‐6 sample). The highest degree of swelling was observed to be 6494% at pH 8.5. The maximum tensile strength was measured to be 1670, 580 and 130 kPa for a DN hydrogel (GS‐2 sample: AM/Na‐AA =75/25 wt% with 20, 40 and 60 wt% water content, respectively). The self‐healing efficiency was estimated to be 69% for such a hydrogel. These multifunctional DN hydrogels with amalgamation of many functional properties are unique in hydrogel materials and such materials may find applications in sensors, actuators, smart windows and biomedical applications. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry Multifunctional double network pH‐responsive smart hydrogels have been developed which are highly swellable and stretchable with sufficient strength and self‐healing properties. Such hydrogels are based on double crosslinking structures with multiple physical and chemical crosslinks of a network of acrylamide and sodium acrylate embedded into another reversible network of poly(vinyl alcohol)–borax complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Human skin exhibits high stiffness of up to 100 MPa and high toughness of up to 3600 J m−2 despite its high water content of 40–70 wt%. Engineering hydrogels have rarely possessed both high stiffness and toughness, because compliant hydrogels usually become brittle when excess crosslinker is added to make the gel stiff. Furthermore, conventional hydrogels usually swell under physiological conditions, weakening their mechanical properties. Here, we designed a non-swellable hydrogel with high stiffness and toughness by interpenetrating covalently and ionically crosslinked networks. The stiffness is enhanced by utilizing ionic crosslinking sites fully, and the toughness is enhanced by adopting synergistic effects between energy-dissipation by ionic networks and crack-bridging by covalent networks. Non-swelling behaviors of the gel are achieved by densifying covalent and ionic crosslinks. The hybrid gel shows high elastic moduli (up to 108 MPa) and high fracture energies (up to 8850 J m−2). In vitro and in vivo swelling tests prove non-swelling behaviors of the gel. Live/dead assays show 99% cell viability over a period of 60 days. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Enhanced stiffness (~108 MPa) and toughness (~8,850 J m-2) of pHEMA-alginate hydrogels were comparable with those of human skin. • Non-swelling behaviors of the gels were stable under in vivo conditions. • 99% cell viability over a period of 60 days was shown via live/dead assays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel tough hydrogel materials are required for 3D-printing applications. Here, a series of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) based on poly(e-caprolactone)-b-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL-b-PEG-b-PCL) triblock copolymers and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) were developed with PEG contents varying between 30 and 70 mol%. These showed excellent mechanical properties not only when dry, but also when hydrated: TPUs prepared from PCL-b-PEG-b-PCL with PEG of Mn 6 kg/mol (PCL7-PEG6-PCL7) took up 122 wt.% upon hydration and had an E-modulus of 52 ± 10 MPa, a tensile strength of 17 ± 2 MPa, and a strain at break of 1553 ± 155% in the hydrated state. They had a fracture energy of 17976 ± 3011 N/mm² and a high tearing energy of 72 kJ/m². TPUs prepared using PEG with Mn of 10 kg/mol (PCL5-PEG10-PCL5) took up 534% water and were more flexible. When wet, they had an E-modulus of 7 ± 2 MPa, a tensile strength of 4 ± 1 MPa, and a strain at break of 147 ± 41%. These hydrogels had a fracture energy of 513 ± 267 N/mm² and a tearing energy of 16 kJ/m². The latter TPU was first extruded into filaments and then processed into designed porous hydrogel structures by 3D-printing. These hydrogels can be used in 3D printing of tissue engineering scaffolds with high fracture toughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]