Research progress of polyvinyl alcohol-based physical crosslinked gels featuring high mechanical properties

With the emergence and rapid advancement of cutting-edge sciences like artificial intelligence and brain-computer interface， significant progress has been achieved in the development of flexible gel materials. Due to the good biocompatibility， adaptability to multifunctional components， and cost-effectiveness， polyvinyl alcohol （PVA） is widely used as an ideal skeleton for the construction of gel materials. According to the reports on PVA-based gels in the past years， in this paper， we provide a comprehensive overview of design methods， especially the mechanical reinforcement strategies， to construct physical crosslinked networks of PVA， including freeze-thawing， salt-outing， annealing， and solvent exchange. Furthermore， we summarize the current challenges in high-performance PVA-based gel materials， and propose insights into future developments and potential applications.