MXene triggers high toughness, high strength and low hysteresis hydrogels for printed artificial tissue

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel MXene-triggered rapid polymerization method to create hydrogels with high strength, toughness, and low hysteresis, suitable for 3D printed artificial tissues and ligaments.

Contribution

It introduces a heterogeneous polymerization process using MXene microreactors, enabling fast production of mechanically superior hydrogels for tissue engineering.

Findings

Hydrogels achieved strength of 2.4 MPa and toughness of 75.2 kJ/m².

Printed hydrogels exhibit excellent load-bearing and wear resistance.

Artificial ligaments demonstrate superior suturability and durability.

Abstract

Substituting load-bearing tissues requires hydrogels with rapid processability, excellent mechanical strength and fatigue resistance. Conventional homogeneously polymerized hydrogels with short-chains/excessive branching exhibit low strength/toughness, being inadequate for artificial tissues. Here we introduce the heterogeneous polymerization-accelerated reaction kinetics on the Ti3C2Tx MXene microreactor and sluggish kinetics beyond-to rapidly produce hydrogels within minutes. This allows the hyperbranched domains embedded within a highly entangled matrix, leading to excellent strength (2.4 MPa)/toughness (75.2 kJ m-2) and low hysteresis (2.9%) in hydrogels superior to the rest ones. The rapid liquid-to-solid transition triggered by MXene suggests the great possibility of 3D printed robust hydrogels toward artificial tissue. Importantly, these printed hydrogels-based artificial ligaments have demonstrated impressive load-bearing capacity, wear resistance, and suturability compared to commercial analogs.