Mechanical Properties of a Supramolecular Nanocomposite Hydrogel Containing Hydroxyl Groups Enriched Hyper-Branched Polymers.

ABSTRACT: Owing to highly tunable topology and functional groups, hyper-branched polymers are a potential candidate for toughening agents, for achieving supramolecular interactions with hydrogel networks. However, their toughening effects and mechanisms are not well understood. Here, by means of tensile and pure shear testings, we characterise the mechanics of a nanoparticle-hydrogel hybrid system that incorporates a hyper-branched polymer (HBP) with abundant hydroxyl end groups into the matrix of the polyacrylic acid (PAA) hydrogel. We found that the third and fourth generations of HBP are more effective than the second one in terms of strengthening and toughening effects. At a HBP content of 14 wt%, compared to that of the pure PAA hydrogel, strengths of the hybrid hydrogels with the third and fou

SUBMITTER: Xing W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7961438 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature