Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2018, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (6): 1028-1034.doi: 10.1007/s40242-018-8219-6

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Bentonite Reinforced Tough Composite Hydrogels as Potential Artificial Articular Cartilage

LU Xueting1, FENG Wei2, WANG Honglei1, HU Qianqian1, GUAN Shuang1, GUO Peipei1   

  1. 1. School of Chemistry and Life Science, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, P. R. China;
    2. China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, P. R. China
  • Received:2018-07-04 Online:2018-12-01 Published:2018-09-29
  • Contact: GUAN Shuang, GUO Peipei E-mail:guanshuang@ccut.edu.cn;guopeipei@ccut.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the Project of Education Department of Jilin Province, China(Nos.JJKH20170545KJ, 2016319), the Project of Department of Science and Technology of Jilin Province, China(No.20160520136JH) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.31500005).

Abstract: Novel tough composite hydrogels were prepared from inorganic bentonite(IB), polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) and polyethylene glycol(PEG) by means of a freeze-thaw technique, during which IB acted as multifunctional physically crosslinking junction and a filler to bridge the 3D network hydrogel; while the physical adsorption between IB and the polymer chains served as sacrificial bonds and increased the energy dissipation efficiency. The effects of different content of IB(wIB) on the morphological, thermal, swelling, and mechanical properties of the hydrogels were investigated. It was found that the added IB promoted the material crosslinking and stability, and the mechanical properties of the hydrogels were significantly improved with increasing wIB. The highest tensile stress of the hydrogel was achieved(1.1 MPa) when wIBwas 5%. The synthesized hydrogels with high mechanical strength and low friction coefficient are potential candidate materials for artificial cartilage.

Key words: Bentonite, Polyvinyl alcohol, Polyethylene glycol, Freeze-thaw, Hydrogel