乳液粒子作为疏水缔合中心诱导疏水分子链段有效聚集增韧水凝胶

Polymer hydrogels are “soft and wet” materials that possess good biocompatibility, making them ideal candidates for many bioengineering applications such as scaffolds in tissue engineering, artificial cartilage and drug delivery. The applicability of hydrogels, however, is often severely limited by their weak and brittle mechanical properties, which are due to intrinsic structural inhomogeneity and lack of an effective energy dissipation mechanism. Therefore, improving the mechanical behaviors of hydrogel has been an crucial topic in the field of hydrogel science. Although dense connective tissue in living organisms shows excellent mechanical performance owing to the aggregation of hydrophobic segments, the hydrophobic association hydrogels in the reported literature usually failed at a tensile stress less than sub-MPa. How to construct effectively the aggregation structure of hydrophobic molecular chain, to achieve high performance hydrogels? In our group, we propose that the emulsion particles act as hydrophobic association centers to induce the effective aggregation of hydrophobic segments, which significantly improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels. The chemical composition, particle size, pore structure and core-shell morphology of emulsion particles may affect the mechanical properties of hydrogels. It is believed that the new mechanism will be fully explained through the implementation of this project, meanwhile, it provides the necessary theoretical basis for the preparation of the hydrogels with more excellent properties (such as anti-fatigue, self-healing and shape memory), and a new thinking direction for the development of the new generation of tissue engineering materials.

高分子水凝胶是一类重要的软湿材料，具有良好的生物相容性，在组织工程、人工软骨、药物传递等领域备受青睐。然而，传统水凝胶往往因其内部化学交联分布不均，交联点间分子链节长短不一，导致力学强度及稳定性较差，大大限制了其应用范围。生命体内的致密缔结组织因其疏水链段的聚集而显示出坚韧有力的力学性能，但疏水缔合水凝胶相关报道显示其断裂应力仍远达不到兆帕级。因此，如何有效构建疏水分子链段的聚集结构是水凝胶获得显著增韧效果的关键所在。本课题拟利用乳液粒子作为疏水缔合中心，诱导疏水链段有效聚集，显著提升水凝胶的力学性能。同时，通过调控乳液粒子的化学组成、粒径尺寸、孔隙形态、核壳结构等参数，明确其对水凝胶增韧效果的影响规律，并探讨水凝胶增韧的内在机理。相信通过本项目的实施，将对水凝胶获得更多优异性能（如抗疲劳性、自修复愈合、形状记忆性）提供必要的理论基础，为新一代受力组织工程材料的发展提供新的思考方向。

高分子水凝胶是一类重要的软湿材料，具有良好的生物相容性，在组织工程、人工软骨、药物传递等领域备受青睐。然而，传统水凝胶往往因其内部化学交联分布不均，交联点间分子链节长短不一，导致力学强度及稳定性较差，大大限制了其应用范围。生命体内的致密缔结组织因其疏水链段的聚集而显示出坚韧有力的力学性能，但疏水缔合水凝胶相关报道显示其断裂应力仍远达不到兆帕级。因此，如何有效构建疏水分子链段的聚集结构是水凝胶获得显著增韧效果的关键所在。本课题拟利用乳液粒子作为疏水缔合中心，诱导疏水链段有效聚集，显著提升水凝胶的力学性能。同时，通过调控乳液粒子的化学组成、粒径尺寸、孔隙形态、核壳结构等参数，明确其对水凝胶增韧效果的影响规律，并探讨水凝胶增韧的内在机理。相信通过本项目的实施，将对水凝胶获得更多优异性能（抗疲劳性、自修复愈合、形状记忆性）提供必要的理论基础，为新一代受力组织工程材料的发展提供新的思考方向。