| 초록 |
Engineering hydrogels have rarely possessed both high stiffness and toughness, because compliant hydrogels usually become brittle when excess crosslinker is added to make the gel stiff. Furthermore, conventional hydrogels usually swell under physiological conditions, weakening their mechanical properties. We designed a non-swellable hydrogel with high stiffness and toughness by interpenetrating covalently and ionically crosslinked networks. The stiffness is enhanced by utilizing ionic crosslinking sites fully, and the toughness is enhanced by adopting synergistic effects between energy-dissipation by ionic networks and crack-bridging by covalent networks. Non-swelling behaviors of the gel are archieved by densifying covalent and ionic crosslinks. The hybrid gel show high elastic moduli of up to 108 MPa and high fracture energies of up to 8,850 Jm-2. In vitro and in vivo swelling tests prove non-swelling behaviors of the gel. Live/dead show 99% cell viability over a period of 60 days. |
