Wu, Shanglin, Zhu, Mingning, Lu, Dongdong, Milani, Amir H., Lian, Qing, Fielding, Lee A., Saunders, Brian R., Derry, Matthew J., Armes, Steven P., Adlam, Daman and Hoyland, Judith A. (2019). Self-curing super-stretchable polymer/microgel complex coacervate gels without covalent bond formation. Chemical Science, 10 (38), pp. 8832-8839.
Abstract
Elastic physical gels are highly desirable because they can be conveniently prepared and readily shaped. Unfortunately, many elastic physical gels prepared in water require in situ free-radical polymerization during the gel formation stage. In contrast, complex coacervate gels are physical gels that can be prepared by simply mixing two pre-formed oppositely-charged polyelectrolytes. However, as far as we are aware, highly elastic complex coacervate gels have not yet been reported. Herein, we combine polyanionic microgel particles with a well-known commercially-available cationic polyelectrolyte to prepare polymer/microgel complex coacervate (PMCC) physical gels. This new family of gels requires annealing at only 37 °C and behaves like a covalent gel but does not form covalent bonds. Thermal reconfiguration of the dynamic ionic bonds transforms the shapeable pre-gel into a highly elastic gel that is super-stretchable, adhesive, self-healing, highly swellable and can be further toughened using Ca2+ as an ionic crosslinker. Our PMCC gels have excellent potential for applications as engineering gels and structural biomaterials, as well as for wound healing and water purification.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SC02555C |
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Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Aston Polymer Research Group |
Additional Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. |
Publication ISSN: | 2041-6539 |
Last Modified: | 02 Oct 2024 07:23 |
Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2020 13:44 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
https://pubs.rs ... 5C#!divAbstract
(Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2019-08-03 |
Accepted Date: | 2019-08-02 |
Authors: |
Wu, Shanglin
Zhu, Mingning Lu, Dongdong Milani, Amir H. Lian, Qing Fielding, Lee A. Saunders, Brian R. Derry, Matthew J. ( 0000-0001-5010-6725) Armes, Steven P. Adlam, Daman Hoyland, Judith A. |