Hydrogel Paint

Abstract For a hydrogel coating on a substrate to be stable, covalent bonds polymerize monomer units into polymer chains, crosslink the polymer chains into a polymer network, and interlink the polymer network to the substrate. The three processes—polymerization, crosslinking, and interlinking—usually concur. This concurrency hinders widespread applications of hydrogel coatings. Here a principle is described to create hydrogel paints that decouple polymerization from crosslinking and interlinking. Like a common paint, a hydrogel paint divides the labor between the paint maker and the paint user. The paint maker formulates the hydrogel paint by copolymerizing monomer units and coupling agents into polymer chains, but does not crosslink them. The paint user applies the paint on various materials (elastomer, plastic, glass, ceramic, or metal), and by various operations (brush, cast, dip, spin, or spray). During cure, the coupling agents crosslink the polymer chains into a network and interlink the polymer network to the substrate. As an example, hydrogels with thickness in the range of 2–20 µm are dip coated on medical nitinol wires. The coated wires reduce friction by eightfold, and remain stable over 50 test cycles. Also demonstrated are several proof‐of‐concept applications, including stimuli‐responsive structures and antifouling model boats.