Nanochitin/metal ion dual reinforcement in synthetic polyacrylamide network-based nanocomposite hydrogels

Dongjian Li; Huichang Gao; Miaosi Li; Guangxue Chen; Liyun Guan; Minghui He; Junfei Tian; Rong Cao

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116061

Nanochitin/metal ion dual reinforcement in synthetic polyacrylamide network-based nanocomposite hydrogels

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 May 15:236:116061. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116061. Epub 2020 Feb 21.

Authors

Dongjian Li¹, Huichang Gao², Miaosi Li³, Guangxue Chen¹, Liyun Guan¹, Minghui He¹, Junfei Tian⁴, Rong Cao⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, School of Light Industry and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
² School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, School of Light Industry and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: jftian_scut@163.com.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education and Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Medicine, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China. Electronic address: caorong_chem@163.com.

PMID: 32172876
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116061

Abstract

Nanocomposite hydrogels consisting of a synthetic matrix reinforced by nanosized crystalline polysaccharides offer significant potential in various fields. Different from nanocellulose, the combination of nanochitin with synthetic polymers to obtain nanocomposite hydrogels has not been extensively and systematically studied. Herein, a physically and chemically dual crosslinked nanocomposite hydrogel was successfully synthesized, where chitin nanowhiskers (ChNWs) and Zn²⁺ were incorporated within polyacrylamide (PAAm) matrix. Nanochitin/metal ion dual reinforcement imparts increased elasticity, enhanced mechanical properties, and improved recovery performance to PAAm network. The PAAm/ChNWs/Zn²⁺ hydrogel could be stretched to over 13 times its original length with tensile strength of 321.9 ± 8.2 kPa, and restore its original shape rapidly even when compressed at a strain of 95% with a corresponding compressive strength of 6.95 ± 0.20 MPa. The multiple crosslinks and interactions among ChNWs, Zn²⁺ and synthetic polymeric network were investigated. Moreover, the hydrogel was applied in drug release and soft bioelectronics.

Keywords: Chitin nanowhiskers; Metal coordination; Nanocomposite hydrogels; Polyacrylamide; Reversible interactions.