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Cited by 420Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applicationsAdhesion, Friction, and Surface InteractionsAdvanced Materials and Mechanics

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Fatigue-resistant adhesion of hydrogels

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Liu, Ji, Lin, Shaoting, Liu, Xinyue, Qin, Zhao, Yang, Yueying, Zang, Jianfeng, Zhao, Xuanhe·2020·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14871-3PMC PMC7044439
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Abstract

The adhesion of soft connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, and cartilages) on bones in many animals can maintain high toughness (∽800 J m−2) over millions of cycles of mechanical loads. Such fatigue-resistant adhesion has not been achieved between synthetic hydrogels and engineering materials, but is highly desirable for diverse applications such as artificial cartilages and tendons, robust antifouling coatings, and hydrogel robots. Inspired by the nanostructured interfaces between tendons/ligaments/cartilages and bones, we report that bonding ordered nanocrystalline domains of synthetic hydrogels on engineering materials can give a fatigue-resistant adhesion with an interfacial fatigue threshold of 800 J m−2, because the fatigue-crack propagation at the interface requires a higher energy to fracture the ordered nanostructures than amorphous polymer chains. Our method enables fatigue-resistant hydrogel coatings on diverse engineering materials with complex geometries. We further demonstrate that the fatigue-resistant hydrogel coatings exhibit low friction and low wear against natural cartilages.

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  • Synthetic hydrogels (PEG, PVA, PHEMA, PAM) with enhanced mechanical deformability and controlled structure and degradation can be used in sensors, actuators, soft robots, and wastewater treatment.

    “synthetic hydrogels with enhanced mechanical deformability and controlled structure and degradation, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) and polyacrylamide (PAM), can be used in sensors, actuators, soft robots, and wastewater treatment”

    From Functionalized Hydrogel-Based Wearable Gas and Humidity Sensors. (2023) · cites this paper as [100]

    The Introduction and Results describe PVA hydrogels with tunable crystallinity and use polyacrylamide hydrogels as controls. The Discussion proposes durable hydrogel coatings for devices, including interfaces with robots. Our copy does not support the full list of PEG and PHEMA, controlled degradation, or the claimed uses in sensors, actuators, soft robots, and wastewater treatment. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 32

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Metadata

Authors
Liu, J., Lin, S., Liu, X., Qin, Z., Yang, Y., Zang, J., & Zhao, X.
Affiliations
  • Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
  • Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Zang, Jianfeng
  • Zhao, Xuanhe
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-02-26
Volume
11
Issue
1
Pages
1071-1071
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-020-14871-3
PMC
PMC7044439
OpenAlex
W3007253744
Cited by
420
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 68 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 89 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 15
FWCI
15.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Funders
Centers for Mechanical Engineering Research and Education at MIT and SUSTech
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Advanced Materials and Mechanics
Keywords
hydrogels, nanocrystalline domains, fatigue crack growth, tendon-bone interface, cartilage-bone interface, biomimetic interfaces, low friction, low wear, artificial cartilage, antifouling coatings
MeSH terms
Animals, Cartilage, Cell Adhesion, Chickens, Materials Testing, Models, Molecular, Surface Properties, Tibia, Hydrogels, Tissue Engineering

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