Mechanically viscoelastic nanoreinforced hybrid hydrogels composed of polyacrylamide, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, graphene oxide, and cellulose nanocrystals

Anuj Kumar; Kummara Madhusudana Rao; Sung Soo Han

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.04.004

Mechanically viscoelastic nanoreinforced hybrid hydrogels composed of polyacrylamide, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, graphene oxide, and cellulose nanocrystals

Carbohydr Polym. 2018 Aug 1:193:228-238. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.04.004. Epub 2018 Apr 3.

Authors

Anuj Kumar¹, Kummara Madhusudana Rao², Sung Soo Han³

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea; Department of Nano, Medical and Polymer Materials, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea. Electronic address: anuj.budhera@gmail.com.
² School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea; Department of Nano, Medical and Polymer Materials, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea; Department of Nano, Medical and Polymer Materials, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea. Electronic address: sshan@yu.ac.kr.

PMID: 29773377
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.04.004

Abstract

Polyacrylamide-sodium carboxymethylcellulose (PMC) hybrid hydrogels reinforced with graphene oxide (GO) and/or cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were prepared via in situ free-radical polymerization. In this work, GO nanosheets were freshly synthesized by modified Hummer's method alongwith the aqueous suspension of CNCs by acid-hydrolysis. In addition, the effect of GO content (1.5 wt%) and CNCs (from 2.5 wt% to 10.0 wt%) was investigated in these quaternary hydrogels. The results showed good pseudo-plastic behavior, self-healing ability, mechanical performance, and shape-recovery behavior of the hybrid hydrogels reinforced with GO and CNCs content. PMC-GO1.5/CNCs10.0 hybrid hydrogel showed 110.5 kPa as compressive strength and stiffness value of 887.7 N/m (at 30% strain). Moreover, the synergistic effect of both GO and CNCs as nanoreinforcements in hydrogels provides a new point of view for the preparation of hybrid hydrogels having exceptional structural and mechanical properties. As-obtained hybrid hydrogels may have potential application in tissue engineering for tunable mechanical properties.

Keywords: Cellulose nanocrystals; Graphene oxide; Hydrogels; Stiffness; Tissue engineering.