Nanocomposite smart hydrogels with improved responsiveness and mechanical properties: A mini review

ABSTRACT Responsive hydrogels have the ability to change their volume, transparency, or other properties in response to external chemical and/or physical stimuli. The responsiveness properties including responsive rate and degree, as well as mechanical properties such as Young's modulus, toughness, breaking strength, and breaking strain are crucial parameters of the smart hydrogels that determine the scope of hydrogel applications such as soft actuators, artificial muscles, and tissue engineering scaffolds. In this paper, the development of the nanocomposite smart hydrogels, which can achieve both improved responsiveness and mechanical properties, is reviewed. First, the fabrication approaches for building the nanocomposite networks by doping organic or inorganic nanomaterials via crosslinking or blending strategies are introduced. Then, the mechanisms used to improve both responsiveness and mechanical properties of nanocomposite responsive hydrogels are discussed. Finally, the perspectives as well as current challenges of such nanocomposite responsive hydrogels are addressed. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018, 56, 1306–1313 Nanocomposite smart hydrogels, which are composed of responsive polymers and nanomaterials, can achieve both improved responsiveness and improved mechanical properties. In this paper, the development of the nanocomposite smart hydrogels is reviewed, including the fabrication approaches for building the nanocomposite network by doping organic or inorganic nanomaterials via crosslinking or blending strategies, and the performance‐improving mechanism for the nanocomposite responsive hydrogels with both improved responsiveness and mechanical properties.