Tough thermosensitive hydrogel with excellent adhesion to low-energy surface developed via nanoparticle-induced dynamic crosslinking

Pang, HW (Pang, Huiwen)^{[ 1,2 ]} ; Ma, C (Ma, Chao)^{[ 1,2 ]} ; Li, SZ (Li, Shenzhen)^{[ 5 ]} ; Liu, HG (Liu, Hongguang)^{[ 1,2 ]} ; Xia, CL (Xia, Changlei)^{[ 3 ]} ; Li, JZ (Li, Jianzhang)^{[ 1,2 ]} ; Zhang, SF (Zhang, Shifeng)^{[ 1,2 ]} ; Zhang, WQ (Zhang, Wangqing)^{[ 5 ]} ; Cai, LP (Cai, Liping)^{[ 4 ]} ; Huang, ZH (Huang, Zhenhua)^{[ 4 ]}

APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE, 2021, 560, 文献号: 149935

DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2021.149935

摘要

Stimuli-responsive adhesive hydrogels have obtained increasing attention due to their applications in drug delivery and wearable sensors. However, these hydrogels exhibit weak mechanical properties and poor adhesion, especially on low-energy surfaces. Here, a temperature-responsive adhesive hydrogel was developed based on mussel-inspired dopamine chemistry and core-shell nanoparticle-regulated dynamic cross-linking. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) was used as the hydrogel skeleton, and it endowed the hydrogel with intelligent thermal sensitivity. Core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) with well-controlled sizes were synthesized through reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization. The NPs served as dynamic crosslinking cores and greatly improved the adhesion and mechanical properties of the hydrogel. In particular, the adhesive strength of PNIPAM-PDA-NP hydrogel on PTFE reached 10.3 kPa, and the maximum compressive strength was measured to be 3.41 MPa when being compressed by 90% of its volume. This study provides a novel strategy to develop high-performance stimuli-responsive adhesive hydrogels.