Journal Home > Volume 16 , Issue 2

With the continuous appearance and expansion of high-strength hydrogels in emerging fields such as industry, medicine, and green development, the synthesis and application of high-strength hydrogels have developed dramatically and achieved remarkable results from the aspects of raw materials, preparation methods, and reinforcement mechanisms. However, there is still a lack of systematic reviews on high-strength hydrogels. Herein, we first discuss the advantages of natural and synthetic materials, and the characteristics of high-strength hydrogels prepared from different raw materials; we then expound on the influence mechanism of physical interactions or chemical bonds on the strength of the hydrogel from three aspects: physical cross-linking, chemical cross-linking, and dynamic chemical cross-linking; at last, we systematically expound the strengthening strategies, including double network/multi-network, nanocomposite, topology, supramolecular polymerization, and characteristics and strengthening mechanisms of such high-strength hydrogels. In addition, based on the development status of high-strength hydrogels, we combined the application requirements and the existing drawbacks of high-strength hydrogels to propose their possible development directions in the future.

Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 September 2022
Revised: 28 September 2022
Accepted: 29 September 2022
Published: 03 January 2023
Issue date: February 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52003216), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2021M693007 and 2022M712506), the Chongqing Natural Science Foundation of China (No. cstc2020jcyj-msxmX0784), and the Project of Supporting Young Talents in Shaanxi University Science and Technology Association (No. 202044).

Return