Polyetheramine (PEA): a versatile platform to tailor the properties of hydrogels via H-bonding interactions

• Published in: Polymer chemistry 2017-09, Vol.8 (35), p.5367-5373
• Main Authors: Zhang, Changxu, Liu, Zhiyong, Zhang, Xinhui, Shi, Zixing, Xu, Hongjie, Ma, Xiaodong, Yin, Jie, Tian, Ming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1759-9954; 1759-9962
• DOI: 10.1039/C7PY01105A

Hydrogels have promising applications in biomaterials and other fields. Here, to extend our previous work, we designed a novel class of PEA -P-A -polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels that contain two cooperative H-bonding interactions: PEO/amide groups and diol/carbonyl groups via a versatile platform (PEA). The strong H-bonding between PEA -P-A and PAAm endows the PEA -P-A -PAAm hydrogel with excellent performance (tensile strength is up to 1.15 MPa and elongation at break is up to 1277%). The reversible association and disassociation of the H-bonding impart the PEA -P-A -PAAm hydrogels with pH response and reshaping ability. PEA -P-A -20%-PAAm hydrogels can change the diameter from 4 cm to 2 cm, accompanied by their color change from transparent to white in a pH < 1 solution within 20 minutes. The sample of the PEA -P-A -PAAm hydrogel also can be reshaped into a programmed shape by using the dynamic H-bonding. PEA -P-A -PAAm hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties, fast pH response and reshaping ability could accelerate the practical applications of the hydrogels in many fields.