A tough and ductile, ultrathin film, double-network (DN), biopolymer-based hydrogel displaying the yielding phenomenon was synthesized from methacrylated chondroitin sulfate (MCS) and polyacrylamide (PAAm). The DN of MCS/PAAm exhibited a failure stress more than 20 times greater than the single network (SN) of either MCS or PAAm and exhibited yielding stresses over 1500 kPa. In addition, the stress–strain behavior with a yielding region was also seen in a hydrogel of MCS and poly(N,N-dimethyl acrylamide) (PDMAAm). By replacing PAAm with PDMAAm, interactions known to toughen networks are removed. This demonstration supports the idea that the brittle/ductile combination is key to the DN effect over specific interactions between the networks. The MCS/PAAm and MCS/PDMAAm DN hydrogels had comparable mechanical properties to the archtypal DN hydrogels of poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid) (PAMPS)/PAAm. In addition, these tough and ductile, biopolymer-based, double-network hydrogels demonstrated a substantial yielding region.

Double-network hydrogels (DN gels) have aroused considerable interest because of their excellent mechanical strength and toughness, low sliding friction, good biocompatibility, as well as wide tunability in components. By revisiting DN gels, we provide an ingenious way to fabricate a kind of strong and tough microgel-reinforced hydrogels (MR gels), that densely cross-linked polyelectrolyte microgels of poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic sodium) (PNaAMPS) (replacing the densely crosslinked PNaAMPS macro-network for conventional DN gels) are incorporated into sparsely cross-linked neutral polyacrylamide (PAAm) matrix. The structure of MR gels can be considered as a two-phase composite, where the disperse phase is the rigid DN microgels, and the continuous phase is the sof t PAAm matrix. Similar to DN gels, MR gels show the irreversible energy dissipation in the hysteresis measurement, demonstrating the permanent fracture of the brittle PNaAMPS phase. Thus, the discontinuous brittle phase also serves as sacrif icial bonds. Through quantitative comparison of the hysteresis curves with DN gels and monitoring the morphology change of the embedded microgels in MR gels during the real-time stretching process, we conclude that the DN microgels in MR gels show four times higher in fracture efficiency of the sacrificial bonds than bulk DN gels at the same strain, as a result of the stress concentration around the microgels. ■ INTRODUCTIONHydrogel science and engineering is a field of important research today where the quest for the Holey Grail is clearly to reinforce the mechanical strength and toughness of these soft materials. Various solutions have been proposed to solve the paradox of tough hydrogels since 2001, like double-network hydrogels (DN), 1 slide-ring hydrogels (SR), 2 nanocomposite hydrogels (NC), 3 etc. In the subsequent decade, a wide range of hydrogels with improved mechanical strength and toughness have been developed significantly based on or inspired from these robust hydrogels. 4−12 Among them, DN gels are the toughest synthetic hydrogels with a high modulus, even as tough as load-bearing cartilages and filled rubbers. 13−15 A universal molecular stent method has been developed recently to toughen any hydrogels based on this double network concept, which substantially broadens the applicability of this technology to various functional polymer systems. 16 Extensive studies on the toughening mechanism of DN gels, consisting of polyelectrolyte as the first network and neutral polymer as the second network, have shown that yielding and large hysteresis appear in tensile deformation, and a large damage zone is formed at the crack tip, which effectively relieves the stress concentration and increases the resistance against the crack propagation. 17−19 The hysteresis behavior of DN gels is associated with the fracture of the rigid and brittle polyelectrolyte network, which serves as sacrif icial bonds in the toughening of DN gels. 20 This sacrif icial bonds mechanism has some common features with th...

This study reports a novel nanoparticle system with simple and modular one-step assembly, which can respond intelligently to biologically relevant variations in pH. Importantly, these particles also show the ability to induce escape from the endosomal/lysosomal compartments of the cell, which is integral to the design of efficient polymeric delivery systems. The nanoparticles were formed by the nanoprecipitation of pH-responsive poly(2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) and poly(2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) (PDEAEMA-b-PEG). Rhodamine B octadecyl ester perchlorate was successfully encapsulated within the hydrophobic core of the nanoparticle upon nanoprecipitation into PBS at pH 8. These particles disassembled when the pH was reduced below 6.8 at 37 °C. Cellular experiments showed the successful uptake of the nanoparticles into the endosomal/lysosomal compartments of 3T3 fibroblast cells. The ability to induce escape from the endosomes was demonstrated by the use of calcein, a membrane-impermeable fluorophore. The modular nature of these particles combined with promising endosomal escape capabilities make these dual component PDEAEMA nanoparticles useful for drug and gene delivery applications.