Longer and stronger; stiff but not brittle Hydrogels are highly water-swollen, cross-linked polymers. Although they can be highly deformed, they tend to be weak, and methods to strengthen or toughen them tend to reduce stretchability. Two papers now report strategies to create tough but deformable hydrogels (see the Perspective by Bosnjak and Silberstein). Wang et al . introduced a toughening mechanism by storing releasable extra chain length in the stiff part of a double-network hydrogel. A high applied force triggered the opening of cycling strands that were only activated at high chain extension. Kim et al . synthesized acrylamide gels in which dense entanglements could be achieved by using unusually low amounts of water, cross-linker, and initiator during the synthesis. This approach improves the mechanical strength in solid form while also improving the wear resistance once swollen as a hydrogel. —MSL
This case series describes reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results in 4 health professionals discharged from hospitalization or quarantine after 2 ...
Abstract The current global plastics economy is highly linear, with the exceptional performance and low carbon footprint of polymeric materials at odds with dramatic increases i...
Chitosan has garnered much interest due to its properties and possible applications. Every year the number of publications and patents based on this polymer increase. Chitosan e...
This case report describes birth of an infant with elevated anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgM antibodies and cytokine levels to a mother with polymerase chain reaction–confirmed coronavirus d...
A wrench in the works of COVID-19 Understanding the inner workings of the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may help us to disrupt it. Yin et al. focused on ...
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