Hydrogen bond engineering can convey stretchability, toughness and self-healing properties to materials, although enhancement effects of conventional hydrogen bonds is limiting due to their weak interaction strength. For instance, organisms can withstand extreme conditions due to strong hydrogen bond-based interactions induced by trehalose. In a new report now published in Science Advances, Zilong Han and a team of scientists in smart devices and engineering mechanics at the Zhejiang University in China, described a trehalose network repairing method. They achieved this based on covalent-like hydrogen bonding interactions to improve mechanical properties of hydrogels, to simultaneously allow them to tolerate extreme conditions while maintaining synthetic simplicity useful for a variety of applications. The trehalose-modified hydrogels offered multiple mechanical properties, including strength, stretchability and fracture toughness under a range of temperatures. After dehydration, the team noted the maintenance of hyperelasticity and retained the functionality of modified materials compared to unmodified materials. The method is a versatile process to synthesize well tolerant and highly stretchable tough hydrogels for broad applications.
