Poly(acrylamide)-MWNTs hybrid hydrogel with extremely high mechanical strength

Abstract

Poly(acrylamide)-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PAAm-MWNTs) hybrid hydrogels were prepared through the radiation-induced polymerization and crosslinking of the aqueous solution of acrylamide and well-dispersed MWNTs for the first time. The PAAm gels obtained by the radiation-induced polymerization and cosslinking showed very high mechanical strengths, and the PAAm-MWNTs hybrid hydrogels had improved mechanical properties compared with the PAAm gels, and hence the PAAm-MWNTs hybrid hydrogels showed extremely high compressive and tensile strengths. The hybrid hydrogels with water contents more than 80 wt.% usually did not fracture even at compressive strengths close to or even more than 60 MPa and strains more than 97%. And the hybrid hydrogels had very high elongations (more than 2000% in some cases), especially when the water content was high. The tensile strengths were in sub-MPa. The hybrid PAAm-MWNTs hydrogel is one of the strongest hydrogel even made.

Keywords

• hydrogels
• cnts
• radiation
• high-strength