The development of hydrogel materials with enhanced mechanical properties is the primary focus in designing autonomous self-healable hydrogel materials. Here, we present a facile and cost-effective method for the autonomous self-healing hydrogel based on Glycogen (Gly/PAA-Fe3+) with enhanced mechanical properties by simple insertion of ferric ions in the physically cross-linked network via metal-ligand interactions. This dual physically cross-linked hydrogel has an excellent elongation at break and self-healing properties due to the dynamic ionic cross-linking point. This work will encourage researchers to focus on this facile technique for the synthesis of self-healing hydrogel materials with enhanced mechanical properties.
Keywords: Autonomous self-healing; Glycogen; Mechanically robust; Sacrificial metal-ligand bonds.
Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.