Tough, Slippery, and Low-Permeability Multilayer Hydrogels Modified by Anisotropic Fiber Membrane for Soft Tissue Replacement

作者：Xinyue Zhang, Qin Chen, Kai Chen, Haiyan Feng, Cunao Feng, Xiaowei Li, Dekun Zhang, Shirong Ge · 发表于：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1021/acsami.4c11080 · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications、Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications、Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials

Hydrogels with sustained lubrication, high load-bearing capacity, and wear resistance are essential for applications in soft tissue replacements and soft material devices. Traditional tough or lubricious hydrogels fail to balance the lubrication and load-bearing functions. Inspired by the gradient-ordered multilayer structures of natural tissues (such as cartilage and ligaments), a tough, smooth, low-permeability, and low-friction anisotropic layered electrospun fiber membrane-reinforced hydrogel was developed using electrospinning and annealing recrystallization. This hydrogel features a stratified porous network structure of varying sizes with tightly bonded interfaces, achieving an interfacial bonding toughness of 1.6 × 10 3 J/m 2 . The anisotropic fiber membranes, mimicking the orderly fiber structures within soft tissues, significantly enhance the mechanical properties of the hydrogel with a fracture strength of 20.95 MPa, a Young’s modulus of 29.64 MPa, and a tear toughness of 37.94 kJ/m 2 and reduce its permeability coefficient (6.1 × 10 –17 m 4 N –1 s –1 ). Meanwhile, the hydrogel demonstrates excellent solid–liquid phase load-bearing characteristics, which can markedly improve the tribological performance. Under a contact load of 4.1 MPa, the anisotropic fiber membrane-reinforced hydrogel achieves a friction coefficient of 0.036, a 219% reduction compared with pure hydrogels. Thus, the superior load-bearing and lubricating properties of this layered hydrogel undersco...