Abstract
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogel with temperature-sensitive properties can be potentially applied in smart response area. However, poor mechanical and non-conductive characteristic have greatly restricted its widespread application. In this work, PNIPAAm composite hydrogels containing graphene aerogel (GA) and graphene oxide (GO) were prepared via vacuum-assisted backfilling and in-situ polymerization. After an introduction of 0.29 wt% GA and 0.09 wt% GO, the compressive strength and modulus of PNIPAAm hydrogel increase by 100% and 582%, respectively. Moreover, the ternary composite hydrogel has a good electric conductivity, reaching up to 0.52 S/m, due to the electro-conductive network of GA. Combining the good conductivity and itself temperature-sensitive property of PNIPAAm, a smart switch was assembled and could switch off automatically under a high voltage, which has potential applications in sensor area.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51973193), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2017FZA4024), and the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (SKL-ChE-13D) for their financial support.
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Zhang, LJ., Feng, LF., Gu, XP. et al. Electro-conductive and temperature-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) composite hydrogels with improved mechanical properties. Appl Nanosci 10, 2189–2198 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01358-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01358-2