Bioinspired structural hydrogels with highly ordered hierarchical orientations by flow-induced alignment of nanofibrils.

ABSTRACT: Natural structural materials often possess unique combinations of strength and toughness resulting from their complex hierarchical assembly across multiple length scales. However, engineering such well-ordered structures in synthetic materials via a universal and scalable manner still poses a grand challenge. Herein, a simple yet versatile approach is proposed to design hierarchically structured hydrogels by flow-induced alignment of nanofibrils, without high time/energy consumption or cumbersome postprocessing. Highly aligned fibrous configuration and structural densification are successfully achieved in anisotropic hydrogels under ambient conditions, resulting in desired mechanical properties and damage-tolerant architectures, for example, strength of 14 ± 1 MPa, toughness of 154 ± 13 MJ

SUBMITTER: Zhu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10761753 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature