Manufacture of Strong, Tough Hybrid Hydrogels

该基金为混合水凝胶的制造提供资金，其中物理和交联网络被纳入单一的多组分聚合物中。水凝胶是由化学和/或物理交联的亲水性聚合物组成的三维网络，在各种技术中有应用，如药物或农用化学品输送、食品和个人护理产品、光学、流体、伤口愈合和组织工程。由共价键形成的化学水凝胶具有永久的形状，但其机械强度和韧性一般较差，而物理水凝胶具有良好的韧性，但缺乏共价键凝胶的抗蠕变能力。研究内容包括杂化水凝胶的合成以及中性和带电材料的微观结构、膨胀行为、流动和粘弹性以及力学性能的表征。研究目标是开发高强度、高韧性的水凝胶，了解混合水凝胶的增韧机理，并开发通过溶剂或熔体注射、熔体成型和纳米纤维静电纺丝生产异形凝胶物体的制造方法。这项研究的结果将导致机械性能的改进和生产水凝胶产品的制造方法。对主要由水构成的坚固、坚韧材料（即水凝胶）形成机理的理解的发展，将导致为现有应用设计改进的软材料，并将水凝胶的应用扩展到目前由于刚度、强度和/或断裂韧性较差而不适合的技术中。除了扩大水凝胶的商业应用之外，水凝胶替代许多现有材料的应用也应该具有积极的环境影响，因为大多数水凝胶对环境是无害的。混合水凝胶的纳米结构形态也可能导致这些材料的智能应用，如形状记忆和/或自修复行为。

This grant provides funding for the manufacture of hybrid hydrogels, wherein physical and cross-linked networks are incorporated into a single multi-component polymer. Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks composed of chemically and/or physically-crosslinked hydrophilic polymers that have applications in diverse technologies such as drug or agrochemical delivery, food and personal care products, optics, fluidics, wound healing and tissue engineering. Chemical hydrogels formed from covalent bonds have permanent shapes, but they generally exhibit poor mechanical strength and toughness, while physical hydrogels exhibit good toughness, but lack the creep resistance of covalent gels. The research includes the synthesis of hybrid hydrogels and the characterization of the microstructure, swelling behavior, flow and viscoelastic properties and mechanical properties of neutral and charged materials. The objectives are to develop strong, tough hydrogels, understand the mechanism of toughening in hybrid hydrogels and the development of manufacturing methods for producing shaped gel objects by solvent or melt injection, melt shaping and electrospinning of nanofibers. The results of this research will lead to improvements in the mechanical properties and manufacturing methods for producing hydrogel products. The development of an understanding of the mechanism by which strong, tough materials that are mostly water (i.e., hydrogels) are achieved will lead to the design of improved soft materials for existing applications and expand the application of hydrogels into technologies for which they are currently unsuitable, because of poor stiffness, strength and/or fracture toughness. In addition to the expansion of commercial applications of hydrogels, the substitution of hydrogels for many existing material applications should also have positive environmental implications, in that most hydrogels are environmentally benign. The nano-structured morphology expected for hybrid hydrogels may also lead to smart applications of these materials, such as shape memory and/or self-healing behavior.