Superior Mechanical Properties of Double-Network Hydrogels Reinforced by Carbon Nanotubes without Organic Modification

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Weifu Dong¹  Chiguang Huang²  Yang Wang²  Yujie Sun²  Piming Ma² 

[1]The Key Laboratory of Food Colloids and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China

关键词: nanocomposite hydrogels;    double network;    CNTs;    mechanical strength;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms141122380

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A facile method is developed to fabricate nanocomposite double-network (DN) gels with excellent mechanical properties, which do not fracture upon loading up to 78 MPa and a strain above 0.98, by compositing of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) without organic modification. Investigations of swelling behaviors, and compressive and tensile properties indicate that equilibrium swelling ratio, compressive modulus and stress, fracture stress, Young’s modulus, and yield stress are significantly improved in the presence of CNTs. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals that the pore size of nanocomposite DN gels is decreased and some embedded micro-network structures are observed on the fracture surface in comparison to DN gels without CNTs, which leads to the enhancement of mechanical properties. The compressive loading-unloading behaviors show that the area of hysteresis loop, dissipated energy, for the first compressive cycle, increases with addition of CNTs, which is much higher than that for the successive cycles. Furthermore, the energy dissipation mechanism, similar to the Mullins effect observed in filled rubbers, is demonstrated for better understanding the nanocomposite DN polymer gels with CNTs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland