Breakup doesn’t keep hydrogel down
New material is strong, soft and self-heals in seconds
Pulling yourself back together after a breakup can be tough to do. But a new hydrogel has no trouble. Using little more than water, clay and a new, designer compound, scientists have created a moldable gel that is both strong and can heal itself in seconds when split in two. The gel may advance efforts in tissue engineering and environmentally friendly chemistry.
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The new hydrogel is more than 50 times stronger than comparable squishy self-healing materials, researchers led by Takuzo Aida of the University of Tokyo report in the Jan. 21 Nature. Such substances are well suited for the body; they are 95 percent water. Hydrogels may one day serve as scaffolding for growing new tissue, as matrices for keeping drugs in their targeted area or as replacements for damaged cartilage. The new gel, unlike similar materials, is quick and relatively simple to make.
The work adds to a “growing field of materials with exceptional properties that really could not be imagined” before, comments chemical engineer J. Zach Hilt of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.