The team of Professor Lin Lu from Xiamen University: New progress in the field of biomass-based natural flexible hydrogels
Tough and flexible hydrogels have received extensive attention for their potential applications in tissue engineering, soft robotics, and more. Natural wood is an abundant biomass resource. In the process of wood processing, lignin, as the second most abundant biopolymer in natural plants, is not fully utilized, resulting in a serious waste of resources.
Professor Lin Lu's team constructed and designed a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-enhanced all-wood hydrogel through the Hofmeister Effect without adding any chemical cross-linking agent. Through a series of treatments such as lignin rearrangement, PVA impregnation, and sodium sulfate salting out, the leap from natural wood to flexible smart materials has been achieved. In this system, cellulose fibers act as a highly aligned skeletal structure, PVA acts as a filler, and lignin molecules act as cross-linking agents. The prepared all-wood hydrogel has good flexibility, high mechanical strength and electrical conductivity, can accurately identify various macroscopic or subtle human behaviors, and has great application potential in wearable sensors and tissue engineering and other related fields.
Since the Hofmeister effect is a reversible process that enables the all-wood hydrogel to soften or even dissolve in water, the mechanical strength of the all-wood hydrogel can be effectively adjusted. Therefore, the all-wood hydrogel is biodegradable and recyclable, which solves the problem of intractable disposal of waste electronic devices in the past, and realizes the efficient use of resources.
