Designing Superlubricious Hydrogels from Spontaneous Peroxidation Gradients.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogels are hydrated three-dimensional networks of hydrophilic polymers that are commonly used in the biomedical industry due to their mechanical and structural tunability, biocompatibility, and similar water content to biological tissues. The surface structure of hydrogels polymerized through free-radical polymerization can be modified by controlling environmental oxygen concentrations, leading to the formation of a polymer concentration gradient. In this work, 17.5 wt % polyacrylamide hydrogels are polymerized in low (0.01 mol % O₂) and high (20 mol % O₂) oxygen environments, and their mechanical and tribological properties are characterized through microindentation, nanoindentation, and tribological sliding experiments. Without significantly reducing the elastic

SUBMITTER: Chau AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10510045 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature