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A highly stretchable, ultra-tough, remarkably tolerant, and robust self-healing glycerol-hydrogel for a dual-responsive soft actuator

journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-01, 00:00 authored by M Guo, Y Wu, S Xue, Y Xia, X Yang, Y Dzenis, Z Li, Weiwei LeiWeiwei Lei, A T Smith, L Sun
© 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Stimuli-responsive devices based on stretchable, tough, tolerant, and self-healing hydrogels are critical to fabricate soft actuators but it remains a formidable challenge to develop them. Herein, a novel strategy is demonstrated to meet this challenge by incorporating functionalized boron nitride nanosheets (nano-reinforcing domains) into poly(acrylamide-co-maleic anhydride) (soft elastin matrix) hydrogel followed by glycerol-water post-treatment. The resultant glycerol-hydrogel exhibited high stretchability (strain at break up to 2700%), outstanding tensile strength and toughness (up to 2.8 MPa and 19.3 MJ m-3, respectively), long-term dehydration resistance to high temperature (60 °C), and excellent anti-freezing properties at low temperature (-45 °C). Furthermore, excellent self-healing capability was demonstrated by the healing of the hydrogel after three months of storage at temperatures as low as-45 °C. By taking advantage of the outstanding dehydration resistance of the glycerol-hydrogel, dual responsive actuating devices were designed based on bilayer hydrogels to grip, release, and drive a ball under different stimuli. Thus, this work not only inspires the design and fabrication of high-performance hydrogels but also broadens their applications in soft robotics, bioactuators, and other areas.

History

Journal

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Volume

7

Issue

45

Pagination

25969 - 25977

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

2050-7488

eISSN

2050-7496

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

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