Bottlebrush Hydrogels with Hidden Length: Super‐Swelling and Mechanically Robust

Abstract Hydrogels are explored for applications in agriculture, water purification, and biomedicine, leveraging softness, elasticity, and high water uptake. However, hydrogels are notoriously brittle, especially at high water content. This shortcoming puts the improvement of hydrogel mechanics at the forefront of current research. Yet modern strategies for enhancing gel resilience come at the expense of softness and swelling. This problem is addressed using bottlebrush networks with disentangled strands and hidden length reservoirs, which synergistically enhance gel swelling and robustness while maintaining their softness. Implementing a facile one‐pot synthesis of single‐stranded bottlebrush networks with a relatively hydrophobic poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) backbone and hydrophilic poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline) (PMOx) side chains, hydrogels are prepared with a modulus below <1 kPa and swelling ratios up to 125 that can withstand up to 10‐fold extension.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2024-08-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202410905
Citations
14
Primary Topic
Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.38

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article

Bottlebrush Hydrogels with Hidden Length: Super‐Swelling and Mechanically Robust

Claire J. Wang, Zilu Wang, Andrey V. Dobrynin, Ioannis Moutsios et al.
14 citations
Advanced Functional Materials
Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
2.38
article

Bottlebrush Hydrogels with Hidden Length: Super‐Swelling and Mechanically Robust

Claire J. Wang, Zilu Wang, Andrey V. Dobrynin, Ioannis Moutsios, Sergei S. Sheiko, Dimitri A. Ivanov, Foad Vashahi, Georgiy G. Ageev, Akmal Z. Umarov
article en
14 citations

Abstract

Abstract Hydrogels are explored for applications in agriculture, water purification, and biomedicine, leveraging softness, elasticity, and high water uptake. However, hydrogels are notoriously brittle, especially at high water content. This shortcoming puts the improvement of hydrogel mechanics at the forefront of current research. Yet modern strategies for enhancing gel resilience come at the expense of softness and swelling. This problem is addressed using bottlebrush networks with disentangled strands and hidden length reservoirs, which synergistically enhance gel swelling and robustness while maintaining their softness. Implementing a facile one‐pot synthesis of single‐stranded bottlebrush networks with a relatively hydrophobic poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) backbone and hydrophilic poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline) (PMOx) side chains, hydrogels are prepared with a modulus below <1 kPa and swelling ratios up to 125 that can withstand up to 10‐fold extension.

Advanced Functional MaterialsVol. 34(52)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Lomonosov Moscow State University (RU), Sirius University of Science and Technology (RU), Institut de Sciences des Matériaux de Mulhouse (FR)
National Science Foundation, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Russian Science Foundation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Division of Materials Research, Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
Openalex Percentile: Top 10%
Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
2.38
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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