Gum Arabic: A promising candidate for the construction of physical hydrogels exhibiting highly stretchable, self-healing and tensility reinforcing performances

Dongbei Wu; Jingyan Xu; Yongui Chen; Meirong Yi; Qigang Wang

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.076

Gum Arabic: A promising candidate for the construction of physical hydrogels exhibiting highly stretchable, self-healing and tensility reinforcing performances

Carbohydr Polym. 2018 Feb 1:181:167-174. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.076. Epub 2017 Oct 23.

Authors

Dongbei Wu¹, Jingyan Xu², Yongui Chen³, Meirong Yi², Qigang Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China. Electronic address: wudongbei@tongji.edu.cn.
² School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China.
³ Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China. Electronic address: cyg@tongji.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China. Electronic address: wangqg66@tongji.edu.cn.

PMID: 29253959
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.076

Abstract

The preparation of tough and healable hydrogels in one step remains a big challenge throughout the field of hydrogel methodology. Herein, we fabricated a series of Poly(N,N-dimethyl acrylamide)-TiO₂-gum arabic (PDMAA-TiO₂-GA) hybrid hydrogels by simply introducing nanoparticles TiO₂ and vinyl-modified gum arabic (GMAGA) into polymer networks. Without complicate molecular design and post-treating process, the hydrogel molding process was simple and effective. The hydrogel exhibited highly stretchable, self-healing and tensility reinforcing performances with the optimized compositions of 30% DMAA, 0.6% GMAGA and 0.13% TiO₂. The maximum elongation of the hydrogel after self-healing recover could reach nearly 700% after only 20min healing time. The hydrogel could ensure 20 times continuous compressive or tensile tests without obvious deformation. Amazing was the significantly enhanced tensile modulus from 5kPa to 40kPa after 20 stretch-release cycles. The facile preparation and fascinating tensility reinforcing performance benefit the potential application of the carbohydrate GA in hydrogels.

Keywords: Gum arabic; Healable materials; Polymer hydrogel; Single network; TiO(2) nanoparticles.