Hydrogel with Ultrafast Self-Healing Property Both in Air and Underwater

Self-healing hydrogels
have a great potential application in 3D printing, soft robotics,
and tissue engineering. There have been a large number of successful
strategies for developing hydrogels that exhibit rapid and autonomous
recovery. However, developing a gel with an excellent self-healing
performance within several seconds is still an enormous challenge.
Here, an ultrafast self-healing hydrogel based on an agarose/PVA double
network (DN) is presented. The gel utilizing a dynamic borate bond
exhibits 100% cure in strength and elongation after healing for 10
s in air, and this hydrogel shows an excellent self-healing property
underwater as well. In addition, the agarose/PVA DN hydrogel exhibits
a smart self-healing property for an in situ priority recovery, ensuring
that the shape and the function are the same as those of the original
one. With the combination of self-healing properties, such a hydrogel
could be applied to a board range of areas.