Swelling-strengthening hydrogels by embedding with deformable nanobarriers.

ABSTRACT: Biological tissues, such as muscle, can increase their mechanical strength after swelling due to the existence of many biological membrane barriers that can regulate the transmembrane transport of water molecules and ions. Oppositely, typical synthetic materials show a swelling-weakening behavior, which always suffers from a sharp decline in mechanical strength after swelling, because of the dilution of the network. Here, we describe a swelling-strengthening phenomenon of polymer materials achieved by a bioinspired strategy. Liposomal membrane nanobarriers are covalently embedded in a crosslinked network to regulate transmembrane transport. After swelling, the stretched network deforms the liposomes and subsequently initiates the transmembrane diffusion of the encapsulated molecules that c

SUBMITTER: Wu F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7481780 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature