Mechanically resilient hybrid aerogels containing fibers of dual-scale sizes and knotty networks for tissue regeneration.

ABSTRACT: The structure and design flexibility of aerogels make them promising for soft tissue engineering, though they tend to come with brittleness and low elasticity. While increasing crosslinking density may improve mechanics, it also imparts brittleness. In soft tissue engineering, resilience against mechanical loads from mobile tissues is paramount. We report a hybrid aerogel that consists of self-reinforcing networks of micro- and nanofibers. Nanofiber segments physically entangle microfiber pillars, allowing efficient stress distribution through the intertwined fiber networks. We show that optimized hybrid aerogels have high specific tensile moduli (~1961.3 MPa cm³ g^-1) and fracture energies (~7448.8 J m^-2), while exhibiting super-elastic properties with rapi

SUBMITTER: Shahriar SMS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10844217 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature