A strategy for tough and fatigue-resistant hydrogels via loose cross-linking and dense dehydration-induced entanglements

Outstanding overall mechanical properties are essential for the successful utilization of hydrogels in advanced applications such as human-machine interfaces and soft robotics. However, conventional hydrogels suffer from fracture toughness-stiffness conflict and fatigue threshold-stiffness conflict, limiting their applicability. Simultaneously enhancing the fracture toughness, fatigue threshold, and stiffness of hydrogels, especially within a homogeneous single network structure, has proven to be a formidable challenge. In this work, we overcome this challenge through the design of a loosely cross-linked hydrogel with slight dehydration. Experimental results reveal that the slightly-dehydrated, loosely…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 12132014, 12321002, 12022204, 12202397, B21034
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Award: 2022M722823
• HE
  Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project

  Awards: 12022204, B21034
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province

  Awards: 111 Project, LD22A020001, B21034