New hydrogels can be used to make artificial muscles

Japanese scientists have recently developed a hydrogel with excellent elasticity and mechanical strength, which will not cause damage to the hydrogel, whether it is pulling, pressing, winding, or tying. It will completely change the previous temperature and pH-sensitive hydrogels. The fragile image paved the way for the large-scale commercialization of hydrogels. The related papers are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Hydrogels can reversibly change their size and shape under different conditions. This feature makes it a very wide range of applications, such as artificial muscle, drug delivery or sensor applications. However, stimuli-sensitive hydrogels have been studied for decades and have not been commercialized yet. The biggest problem is that these materials are usually soft and fragile, and they are prone to breakage when stretched.

All hydrogels consist of a polymer grid with high water content. Many previous studies have attempted to increase the strength by changing the structure of the polymer, but it was found that this also changed the sensitivity of the hydrogel.

The new hydrogel manufactured by researchers from Nagoya University and Tokyo University in Japan has not only temperature and pH sensitivity, but also excellent flexibility and mechanical strength. The Physicist Organization Network reported on October 23 (Beijing time) that its design inspiration came from a recent study called "Slip Ring Gel," in which molecules can cross-link polymer-like 8-shaped junction holes. slide. This kind of sliding is called the "pulley effect." The pulley effect greatly enhances the strength of the hydrogel through less stress in the polymer grid. In addition, in the new study, the researchers also enhanced the hydrogel's flexibility through the ionic site's polymer network and enabled it to adjust the hydrogel's response to temperature and pH.

The resulting hydrogel has many excellent properties. They can withstand pulling, compressing, winding, and knotting without breaking. Even a sharp knife won't be cut off easily. In addition, they can also absorb large amounts of water and increase their own weight by 620 times. The volume in water will increase significantly.

The co-author of the paper, Yukio Kooka of Nagoya University in Japan, said: “In my opinion, the greatest significance of this work is that it is provided not only for chemists but also for researchers in other fields such as physics, biology, and engineering. An easily-available, highly stretchable hydrogel. These hydrogels will have infinite possibilities in the hands of scientists."

Experimental results show that even minor modifications to the hydrogel polymer grid can dramatically change its chemical properties. This preparation method is simple and versatile and can be easily combined with other processes. Yukio Hiroyuki said that through technical improvements, they can further increase the flexibility of the hydrogel.