Adaptive and freeze-tolerant heteronetwork organohydrogels with enhanced mechanical stability over a wide temperature range

Many biological organisms with exceptional freezing tolerance can resist the damages to cells from extra-/intracellular ice crystals and thus maintain their mechanical stability at subzero temperatures. Inspired by the freezing tolerance mechanisms found in nature, here we report a strategy of combi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2017-06, Vol.8 (1), p.15911-15911, Article 15911
Main Authors: Gao, Hainan, Zhao, Ziguang, Cai, Yudong, Zhou, Jiajia, Hua, Wenda, Chen, Lie, Wang, Li, Zhang, Jianqi, Han, Dong, Liu, Mingjie, Jiang, Lei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
140/133
639/638/298/923/1027
639/638/455/941
Adaptive systems
Cold tolerance
Crystallization
Crystals
Damage tolerance
Dispersion
Freezing
Harsh environments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrogels
Ice
Ice crystals
multidisciplinary
Oil
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Stability
Temperature effects
Temperature tolerance
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Many biological organisms with exceptional freezing tolerance can resist the damages to cells from extra-/intracellular ice crystals and thus maintain their mechanical stability at subzero temperatures. Inspired by the freezing tolerance mechanisms found in nature, here we report a strategy of combining hydrophilic/oleophilic heteronetworks to produce self-adaptive, freeze-tolerant and mechanically stable organohydrogels. The organohydrogels can simultaneously use water and oil as a dispersion medium, and quickly switch between hydrogel- and organogel-like behaviours in response to the nature of the surrounding phase. Accordingly, their surfaces display unusual adaptive dual superlyophobic in oil/water system (that is, they are superhydrophobic under oil and superoleophobic under water). Moreover, the organogel component can inhibit the ice crystallization of the hydrogel component, thus enhancing the mechanical stability of organohydrogel over a wide temperature range (−78 to 80 °C). The organohydrogels may have promising applications in complex and harsh environments. Several living organisms can survive subzero temperatures without cell damage. Here, the authors show a heteronetwork organohydrogel with improved elasticity and mechanical features in a wide range of temperatures.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms15911