Preface
As hydrogels are increasingly used as biomaterials, scaffolds in tissue engineering,
drug delivery systems, or superabsorbents, one of the scientific challenges in the
past decade has been to introduce a self-healing ability in order to extend their
service time. The present volume entitled Self-Healing and Self-Recovering
Hydrogels is intended to review recent experimental and theoretical advances in
self-healing/self-recovering hydrogels based on both synthetic and natural
polymers.
Self-recovery behavior in a chemically cross-linked hydrogel can be generated
through the introduction of additional reversible cross-links. The small and large
strain behavior of a representative dual cross-linked hydrogel is systematically
investigated in the first chapter and the role played by the reversible cross-links
in the mechanism of crack propagation is discussed. Because self-healing efficiency
decreases with increasing lifetime of cross-links, it is generally a challenge to
generate self-healing ability in high-strength hydrogels with modulus and tensile
strength in the range of MPa. Chapter “How to Design Both Mechanically Strong
and Self-Healable Hydrogels?” tries to answer the question of how to design both
mechanically strong and self-healable hydrogels. Chapter “Simulations of Reversibly Bonded Hydrogels” reviews some modern computational techniques based on
statistical physics to simulate dynamic polymer networks of flexible chains and
presents some recent results demonstrating the potential of such approaches. Incorporation of dynamic, reversible bonds into the polymer network of soft gels has
been exploited as a strategy to enhance fracture toughness and to enable selfhealing. Chapter “Mechanics of Polymer Networks with Dynamic Bonds” discusses the recent efforts in introducing physical meaning into macroscopic constitutive solid mechanics models in order to connect the molecular-level bond kinetics
to the continuum-level viscoelasticity.
Hydrophobically associating hydrogels based on copolymers of a water-soluble
monomer with a fluoro(meth)acrylate possess microphase-separated morphologies
that provide unique properties. Chapter “Hydrophobically Associating Hydrogels
with Microphase-Separated Morphologies” reviews the characteristics of these
v
As hydrogels are increasingly used as biomaterials, scaffolds in tissue engineering,
drug delivery systems, or superabsorbents, one of the scientific challenges in the
past decade has been to introduce a self-healing ability in order to extend their
service time. The present volume entitled Self-Healing and Self-Recovering
Hydrogels is intended to review recent experimental and theoretical advances in
self-healing/self-recovering hydrogels based on both synthetic and natural
polymers.
Self-recovery behavior in a chemically cross-linked hydrogel can be generated
through the introduction of additional reversible cross-links. The small and large
strain behavior of a representative dual cross-linked hydrogel is systematically
investigated in the first chapter and the role played by the reversible cross-links
in the mechanism of crack propagation is discussed. Because self-healing efficiency
decreases with increasing lifetime of cross-links, it is generally a challenge to
generate self-healing ability in high-strength hydrogels with modulus and tensile
strength in the range of MPa. Chapter “How to Design Both Mechanically Strong
and Self-Healable Hydrogels?” tries to answer the question of how to design both
mechanically strong and self-healable hydrogels. Chapter “Simulations of Reversibly Bonded Hydrogels” reviews some modern computational techniques based on
statistical physics to simulate dynamic polymer networks of flexible chains and
presents some recent results demonstrating the potential of such approaches. Incorporation of dynamic, reversible bonds into the polymer network of soft gels has
been exploited as a strategy to enhance fracture toughness and to enable selfhealing. Chapter “Mechanics of Polymer Networks with Dynamic Bonds” discusses the recent efforts in introducing physical meaning into macroscopic constitutive solid mechanics models in order to connect the molecular-level bond kinetics
to the continuum-level viscoelasticity.
Hydrophobically associating hydrogels based on copolymers of a water-soluble
monomer with a fluoro(meth)acrylate possess microphase-separated morphologies
that provide unique properties. Chapter “Hydrophobically Associating Hydrogels
with Microphase-Separated Morphologies” reviews the characteristics of these
v