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Tough and tunable adhesion of hydrogels: experiments and models

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Abstract

As polymer networks infiltrated with water, hydrogels are major constituents of animal and plant bodies and have diverse engineering applications. While natural hydrogels can robustly adhere to other biological materials, such as bonding of tendons and cartilage on bones and adhesive plaques of mussels, it is challenging to achieve such tough adhesions between synthetic hydrogels and engineering materials. Recent experiments show that chemically anchoring long-chain polymer networks of tough synthetic hydrogels on solid surfaces create adhesions tougher than their natural counterparts, but the underlying mechanism has not been well understood. It is also challenging to tune systematically the adhesion of hydrogels on solids. Here, we provide a quantitative understanding of the mechanism for tough adhesions of hydrogels on solid materials via a combination of experiments, theory, and numerical simulations. Using a coupled cohesive-zone and Mullins-effect model validated by experiments, we reveal the interplays of intrinsic work of adhesion, interfacial strength, and energy dissipation in bulk hydrogels in order to achieve tough adhesions. We further show that hydrogel adhesion can be systematically tuned by tailoring the hydrogel geometry and silanization time of solid substrates, corresponding to the control of energy dissipation zone and intrinsic work of adhesion, respectively. The current work further provides a theoretical foundation for rational design of future biocompatible and underwater adhesives.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Office Naval Research (Grant N00014-14-1-0528), Draper Laboratory, MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies and the National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI-1253495). Hyunwoo Yuk acknowledges the financial support from Samsung Scholarship. Xuanhe Zhao acknowledges the supports from the National Institutes Health (Grant UH3TR000505). The authors are also grateful for the support from MIT research computing resources and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) (Grant TG-MSS160007).

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  1. Teng Zhang and Hyunwoo Yuk have contributed equally to the current work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Teng Zhang

  2. Soft Active Materials Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Teng Zhang, Hyunwoo Yuk, Shaoting Lin, German A. Parada & Xuanhe Zhao

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Xuanhe Zhao

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  1. Teng Zhang
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Correspondence to Xuanhe Zhao.

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Zhang, T., Yuk, H., Lin, S. et al. Tough and tunable adhesion of hydrogels: experiments and models. Acta Mech. Sin. 33, 543–554 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-017-0661-z

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