| 초록 |
Polymer hydrogels attract attention as excellent soft and wet materials. However, common hydrogels are mechanically too soft and brittle to be used as load-bearing materials. By mimicking the structure of the articular cartilage which is one of the native tough hydrogels, double network (DN) hydrogel with extremely high mechanical performance has been developed. With high water content (~ 90 wt%), DN gels consist of two types of polymer components with opposite physical natures: the minor component is abundantly crosslinked polyelectrolytes and the major component comprises of poorly crosslinked neutral polymers. Under suitable conditions, DN gels exhibit 0.1~1 MPa of elastic modulus, 20~60 MPa of compressive fracture stress, 1000~2000 % of tensile strain, and 100~1000 J/m^2 of fracture energy. These excellent mechanical performances are comparable to that of rubbers and natural bio-tissues. In this study, mechanical properties related to surgical use were reported in various DN gels. |
