Citation: Li-Jun Wang, Kai-Xiang Yang, Qiang Zhou, Hai-Yang Yang, Jia-Qing He, Xing-Yuan Zhang. Rhodamine Mechanophore Functionalized Mechanochromic Double Network Hydrogels with High Sensitivity to Stress[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, ;2020, 38(1): 24-36. doi: 10.1007/s10118-019-2293-1 shu

Rhodamine Mechanophore Functionalized Mechanochromic Double Network Hydrogels with High Sensitivity to Stress

School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

Corresponding author: Hai-Yang Yang, yhy@ustc.edu.cn Xing-Yuan Zhang, zxym@ustc.edu.cn
Received Date: 26 April 2019
Revised Date: 10 May 2019
Available Online: 24 July 2019

Mechanochromic hydrogels, a new class of stimuli-responsive soft materials, have potential applications in a number of fields such as damage reporting and stress/strain sensing. We prepared a novel mechanochromic hydrogel using a strategy that has been developed to prepare dual-network (DN) hydrogels. A hydrophobic rhodamine derivative (Rh mechanophore) was covalently incorporated into a first network as a cross-linker. This first network embedded with Rh mechanophore within the DN hydrogel was pre-stretched. This guaranteed that the stress could be transferred extensively to the Rh-crosslinked first network once the hydrogel was under an applied force. Interestingly, we found that the threshold stress required to activate the mechanochromism of the hydrogel was less than 200 kPa, and much less than those in previous reports. Moreover, because of the excellent sensitivity of the hydrogel to stress, the DN hydrogel exhibited reversible freezing-induced mechanochromism. Benefiting from the sensitivity of Rh mechanophore to both pH and force, the DN hydrogel showed pH-regulated mechanochromic behavior. Our experimental results indicate that the preparation strategy we used introduces sensitive mechanochromism into the hydrogel and preserves the advantageous mechanical properties of the DN hydrogel. These results will be beneficial to the design and preparation of mechanochromic hydrogels with high stress sensitivity, and foster their practical applications in a number of fields such as damage reporting and stress/strain sensing.
- Rhodamine mechanophore,
- Mechanochromic,
- Dual-network hydrogel,
- Freezing-induced mechanochromism,
- pH-regulated,
- Stress sensitivity
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