Dynamic Mussel-Inspired Chitin Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Wearable Strain Sensors

Polymers

Hossein Yousefi¹  Akif Kaynak²  AbbasZ. Kouzani²  Ali Zolfagharian²  Pejman Heidarian² 

[1] Department of Wood Engineering and Technology, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan 4913815739, Iran;School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia;

关键词: dynamic hydrogels;    tannic acid;    chitin nanofibers;    starch;    self-healing;    self-recovery;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym12061416

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

It is an ongoing challenge to fabricate an electroconductive and tough hydrogel with autonomous self-healing and self-recovery (SELF) for wearable strain sensors. Current electroconductive hydrogels often show a trade-off between static crosslinks for mechanical strength and dynamic crosslinks for SELF properties. In this work, a facile procedure was developed to synthesize a dynamic electroconductive hydrogel with excellent SELF and mechanical properties from starch/polyacrylic acid (St/PAA) by simply loading ferric ions (Fe³⁺) and tannic acid-coated chitin nanofibers (TA-ChNFs) into the hydrogel network. Based on our findings, the highest toughness was observed for the 1 wt.% TA-ChNF-reinforced hydrogel (1.43 MJ/m³), which is 10.5-fold higher than the unreinforced counterpart. Moreover, the 1 wt.% TA-ChNF-reinforced hydrogel showed the highest resistance against crack propagation and a 96.5% healing efficiency after 40 min. Therefore, it was chosen as the optimized hydrogel to pursue the remaining experiments. Due to its unique SELF performance, network stability, superior mechanical, and self-adhesiveness properties, this hydrogel demonstrates potential for applications in self-wearable strain sensors.

【 授权许可】

Unknown