Dual Crosslinked-Network Self-Healing Composite Hydrogels Exhibit Enhanced Water Adaptivity and Reinforcement

Despite the self-healing and mechanical stimuli and responsive merits of wearable hydrogel devices, achieving efficient strategies to improve their properties (i.e., mechanical strength and water adaptivity) remains challenging. Hydrogels with multinetwork structures usually display exceptional high mechanical strength via their unique macromolecular hierarchical structure comprising two or more interlaced networks. Herein, we exploit polyol/borax systems to design self-healing bicomponent polymer network hydrogels composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and guar. Our results have shown that due to the formation of bicomponent network structures, considerable reinforcement in the storage modulus and viscoelastic behaviors is achieved. Such improvements are accompanied by enhanced water resistance, which is in sharp contrast to the water-soluble nature of the PVA hydrogel. Moreover, the fabricated composite hydrogel well keeps the self-healing and mechanical stimulus-responsive merits and does not cause a decrease in thermal stability.