Manufacture of Strong, Tough Hybrid Hydrogels

制造坚固、坚韧的混合水凝胶

• 批准号: 1300212
• 负责人: Robert Weiss
• 金额: $ 32.58万
• 依托单位: University of Akron
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1300212&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Manufacture; Strong; Tough; Hybrid; Hydrogels

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.

该赠款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，其在多种技术中具有应用，例如药物或农用化学品递送、食品和个人护理产品、光学、流体学、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形状，但它们通常表现出差的机械强度和韧性，而物理水凝胶表现出良好的韧性，但缺乏共价凝胶的抗蠕变性。该研究包括杂化水凝胶的合成以及中性和带电材料的微观结构、溶胀行为、流动和粘弹性以及机械性能的表征。目标是开发强大的，坚韧的水凝胶，了解混合水凝胶的增韧机制和通过溶剂或熔体注射，熔体成型和纳米纤维的静电纺丝生产成型凝胶物体的制造方法的发展。 这项研究的结果将导致生产水凝胶产品的机械性能和制造方法的改进。发展对主要是水的坚固、坚韧材料（即，水凝胶）的实现将导致用于现有应用的改进的软材料的设计，并将水凝胶的应用扩展到它们目前由于刚度、强度和/或断裂韧性差而不适合的技术中。 除了水凝胶的商业应用的扩展之外，水凝胶对许多现有材料应用的替代也应该具有积极的环境影响，因为大多数水凝胶是环境友好的。混合水凝胶预期的纳米结构形态也可能导致这些材料的智能应用，例如形状记忆和/或自修复行为。