Manufacture of Strong, Tough Hybrid Hydrogels

这笔赠款为制造杂化水凝胶提供资金，在杂化水凝胶中，物理网络和交联网络被结合到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等不同技术中有应用。由共价键形成的化学水凝胶具有永久性的形状，但通常表现出较差的机械强度和韧性，而物理水凝胶表现出良好的韧性，但缺乏共价凝胶的蠕变性能。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、溶胀行为、流动和粘弹性能以及力学性能的表征。其目标是开发强韧的水凝胶，了解杂化水凝胶的增韧机理，以及通过溶剂或熔体注射、熔体成形和纳米纤维静电纺丝生产定形凝胶对象的制造方法的开发。这一研究结果将有助于水凝胶产品的机械性能和制造方法的改进。对主要是水的坚韧材料(即水凝胶)的实现机理的了解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大到目前不适合它们的技术，因为它们的刚性、强度和/或断裂韧性较差。除了扩大水凝胶的商业应用外，水凝胶取代许多现有的材料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。杂化水凝胶所期望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/或自我修复行为。

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.