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Anisotropically Fatigue-Resistant Hydrogels

Liang, X; Chen, G; Lin, S; Zhang, J; Wang, L; Zhang, P; Wang, Z; ... Liu, J; + view all (2021) Anisotropically Fatigue-Resistant Hydrogels. Advanced Materials , 33 (30) , Article 2102011. 10.1002/adma.202102011. Green open access

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Abstract

Nature builds biological materials from limited ingredients, however, with unparalleled mechanical performances compared to artificial materials, by harnessing inherent structures across multi-length-scales. In contrast, synthetic material design overwhelmingly focuses on developing new compounds, and fails to reproduce the mechanical properties of natural counterparts, such as fatigue resistance. Here, a simple yet general strategy to engineer conventional hydrogels with a more than 100-fold increase in fatigue thresholds is reported. This strategy is proven to be universally applicable to various species of hydrogel materials, including polysaccharides (i.e., alginate, cellulose), proteins (i.e., gelatin), synthetic polymers (i.e., poly(vinyl alcohol)s), as well as corresponding polymer composites. These fatigue-resistant hydrogels exhibit a record-high fatigue threshold over most synthetic soft materials, making them low-cost, high-performance, and durable alternatives to soft materials used in those circumstances including robotics, artificial muscles, etc.

Type: Article
Title: Anisotropically Fatigue-Resistant Hydrogels
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202102011
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202102011
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Anisotropy, crack propagation, fatigueresistance, freeze casting, hydrogels
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10130157
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