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  4. Stiff, Strong, Tough, and Highly Stretchable Hydrogels Based on Dual Stimuli-Responsive Semicrystalline Poly(urethane–urea) Copolymers
 
research article

Stiff, Strong, Tough, and Highly Stretchable Hydrogels Based on Dual Stimuli-Responsive Semicrystalline Poly(urethane–urea) Copolymers

Candau, Nicolas
•
Stoclet, Gregory
•
Tahon, Jean-François
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October 8, 2021
ACS Applied Polymer Materials

There has been a considerable interest in developing stiff, strong, tough, and highly stretchable hydrogels in various fields of science and technology including biomedical and sensing applications. However, simultaneous optimization of stiffness, strength, toughness, and extensibility is a challenge for any material, and hydrogels are well-known to be mechanically weak materials. Here, we demonstrate that poly(ethylene oxide)-based dual stimuli-responsive semicrystalline poly(urethane–urea) (PU) copolymers with high hard segment contents (30 and 40%) can be utilized as stiff, strong, tough, and highly stretchable hydrogels with an elastic modulus (4–10 MPa) tens to hundreds of times higher than that of conventional hydrogels (0.01–0.1 MPa), strength (7–13 MPa) and toughness (53–74 MJ·m–3) fairly comparable to those of the toughest hydrogels reported in the literature, and stretchability beyond 10 times their initial length (1000–1250%). In addition, the shape-memory program has been used to tune the room temperature stiffness and strength of the studied PU copolymers. Finally, the materials show fast shape recovery (less than 10 s) during both heat- and water-activated shape memory cycles, which can be adjusted by a simple modulation of the hard segment content and/or soft segment molecular weight. Our findings may be of interest in emerging biomedical and sensing applications.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acsapm.1c00969
Author(s)
Candau, Nicolas
Stoclet, Gregory
Tahon, Jean-François
Demongeot, Adrien  
Schouwink, Pascal  
Yilgor, Emel
Yilgor, Iskender
Menceloglu, Yusuf Z.
Oguz, Oguzhan
Date Issued

2021-10-08

Published in
ACS Applied Polymer Materials
Volume

3

Issue

11

Start page

5683

End page

5695

Subjects

poly(urethane−urea)

•

poly(ethylene oxide)

•

stimuli-responsiveness

•

shape memory

•

hydrogels

•

toughening

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LPAC  
Available on Infoscience
October 20, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/182355
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