Ionic Crosslinking of Acrylic Triblock Copolymer Hydrogels for Enhanced Mechanical Performance

Triblock copolymer gels with a well-defined and highly reproducible structure can be formed by a vapor phase solvent exchange process. Ionic crosslinking of these gels results in a tough 'double network' structure, with the ionic crosslinking resulting in a stiff primary network. The underlying spherical domain morphology of the triblock copolymer produces a secondary network structure that distributes the stress over a large volume, resulting in a gel with very high toughness even at low polymer volume fractions.

Schematic drawings of the polymer chain architecture (top) and gel morphology before (left) and after (right) crosslinking by zinc cations.