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[9] R. Hyndman, A. Mougin, V. Repain, J. Ferre, J. P. Jamet, J. Gierak, provision of low surface friction and wear, a suitable elastic
D. Mailly, C. Chappert, V. Mathet, P. Warin, J. N. Chapman, Trans. Magn.
Soc. Jpn. 2001, 2, 175.
modulus, and high mechanical strength, both in vivo and in
[10] A. Carl, S. Kirsch, J. Lohau, H. Weinforth, E. F. Wassermann, IEEE vitro. For instance, an articular cartilage that is a gel con-
Trans. Magn. 1999, 35, 3106. taining 70 % water exhibits little wear under a loading as
[11] S. Y. Chou, P. R. Krauss, P. B. Fischer, Science 1996, 272, 85.
[12] G. M. McClelland, M. W. Hart, C. T. Rettner, M. E. Best, K. R. Carter, high as several to a hundred megapascals and millions of cy-
B. D. Terris, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2002, 81, 1483. cles with a wide range of sliding velocity.[1] Our recent study
[13] C. Chappert, H. Bernas, J. Ferre, V. Kottler, J. P. Jamet, Y. Chen, E. Cam-
shows that if a gel has free dangling polymer chains on its
bril, T. Devolder, F. Rousseaux, V. Mathet, H. Launois, Science 1998, 280,
1919. surface, its frictional coefficient becomes as low as 10±4.[2]
[14] B. D. Terris, L. Folks, D. Weller, J. E. E. Baglin, A. J. Kellock, H. Rothui- From this viewpoint, gels have a high potential as an artifi-
zen, P. Vettiger, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1999, 75, 403.
[15] J. T. Devolder, C. Chappert, Y. Chen, E. Cambril, H. Bernas, J. P. Jamet,
cial articular cartilage. Although poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA,
J. Ferre, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1999, 74, 3383. hydrogel has been found to be mechanically strong and
[16] H. Loeschner, G. Stengl, R. Kaesmaier, A. Wolter, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B serves as a candidate for artificial articular cartilage,[3,4]
2001, 19, 2520.
[17] A. Dietzel, R. Berger, H. Grimm, C. Schug, W. H. Bruenger, C. Dzionk, most hydrogels derived from either natural or synthetic
F. Letzkus, R. Springer, H. Loeschner, E. Platzgummer, G. Stengl, S. An- sources suffer from lack of mechanical strength. We report
ders, Z. Z. Bandic, C. T. Rettner, B. D. Terris, H. Eichhorn, M. Boehm,
a general method of obtaining very strong hydrogels by in-
D. Adam, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 2002, 705, 279.
[18] A. Dietzel, R. Berger, H. Grimm, W. H. Bruenger, C. Dzionk, F. Letzkus, ducing a double-network (DN) structure for various combi-
R. Springer, H. Loeschner, E. Platzgummer, G. Stengl, Z. Z. Bandic, nations of hydrophilic polymers. These DN hydrogels, con-
B. D. Terris, IEEE Trans. Magn. 2002, 38, 1952.
[19] C. T. Rettner, S. Anders, J. E. E. Baglin, T. Thompson, B. D. Terris, Appl.
taining 60±90 % water, exhibit a fracture strength as high as
Phys. Lett. 2002, 80, 279. a few to several tens of megapascals and show high wear re-
[20] R. Hyndman, P. Warin, J. Gierak, J. Ferre, J. N. Chapman, J. P. Jamet, sistance due to their extremely low coefficient of friction.
V. Mathet, C. Chappert, J. Appl. Phys. 2001, 90, 3843.
[21] C. Vieu, J. Gierak, H. Lanois, T. Aign, P. Meyer, J. P. Jamet, J. Ferre, These gels might open new era of soft and wet materials as
C. Chappert, T. Devolder, V. Mathet, J. Appl. Phys. 2002, 91, 3103. substitutes for articular cartilage and other tissues.
[22] G. J. Kusinski, K. M. Krishnan, G. Denbeaux, G. Thomas, B. D. Terris,
Hereafter, the DN gels are referred to as P1-x1-y1/P2-x2-y2,
D. Weller, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2001, 79, 2211.
[23] T. Aign, P. Meyer, S. Lemerle, J. P. Jamet, J. Ferre, V. Mathet, C. Chappert, where Pi, xi, and yi (i = 1,2) are the abbreviated polymer
J. Gierak, C. Vieu, F. Rousseaux, H. Launois, H. Bernas, Phys. Rev. Lett. name, molar monomer concentration, and the crosslinker con-
1998, 81, 5656.
[24] C. Dzionk, Fraunhofer Institute Berlin, Germany, personal communica-
centration in mol-% with respect to the monomer for the ith
tion. The lateral spread of displaced ions was revealed from Monte-Carlo network, respectively. The DN hydrogels with an optimized
simulations using the TRIM-CASCADE software of J. P. Biersack. network structure can sustain a compressive pressure as high
[25] F. Letzkus, J. Butschke, B. Höfflinger, M. Irmscher, C. Reuter, R. Spring-
er, A. Ehrmann, J. Mathuni, Microelectron. Eng. 2000, 53, 609. as several tens of megapascals. This is in stark contrast to most
[26] D. Weller, L. Folks, M. Best, E. E. Fullerton, B. D. Terris, G. J. Kusinski, common hydrogels with a single network, which are easily
K. M. Krishnan, G. Thomas, J. Appl. Phys. 2001, 89, 7525.
broken either by pressing with a finger or pulling with the
hands. As shown in Figure 1, for example, the PAMPS-1-4/
PAAm-2-0.1 DN gel is so tough that it is resistant to slicing
Double-Network Hydrogels with Extremely High with a cutter, despite containing 90 wt.-% water. Here,
Mechanical Strength** PAMPS stands for poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfon-

By Jian Ping Gong,* Yoshinori Katsuyama,

Takayuki Kurokawa, and Yoshihito Osada

Gel scientists are facing challenges in providing synthetic

connective tissues that serve a predominantly biomechani-
cal role in the body, such as articular cartilage, semilunar
cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. However, in order to re-
place the natural tissues with hydrogels, a number of signifi-
cant engineering questions should be addressed, such as the

±
[*] Prof. J. P. Gong, Y. Katsuyama, T. Kurokawa, Prof. Y. Osada
Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University
Sapporo 060-0810 (Japan)
E-mail: [email protected]
Prof. J. P. Gong
Presto, JST
Sapporo 060-0810 (Japan)
[**] We thank T. Miyazaki and A. Nakayama for experimental help. We also
thank K. Yasuda (Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University) Fig. 1. Pictures demonstrating the strength of a DN hydrogel that resists slicing
and Dr. M. Ueno (Kyocera Co.) for their help with the pin-and-flat test. with a cutter. The PAMPS-1-4 SN gel is easily sliced at a stress of 0.2 MPa (a),
This research was financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Creative while the PAMPS-1-4/PAAm-1-0.1 DN gel resists even at a stress of 25 MPa
Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, with a strain as great as 80 % (b). Water content of the PMPS SN gel is
Science and Technology, Japan. 90 wt.-% and that of the PAMPS/PAAm DN gel 88 wt.-%.

Adv. Mater. 2003, 15, No. 14, July 17 DOI: 10.1002/adma.200304907 Ó 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1155
 15214095, 2003, 14, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.200304907 by Hebrew University Of Jerusalem, Wiley Online Library on [19/09/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
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ic acid) and PAAm for poly(acrylamide). The high-strength (a) (b)

DN gel showed a good reproducibility.
Figure 2 shows a typical stress±stain curve of a PAMPS-1-4/
PAAm-2-0.1 DN gel under compression. PAMPS-1-4 and
PAAm-2-0.1 single-network (SN) gels break at stresses of 0.4

20

PAMPS-PAAm DN gel
15

10
PAAm gel
5 PAMPS gel

0
0 20 40 60 80 100

Fig. 2. Stress±strain curves for hydrogels under uniaxial compression. Circles:

PAMPS-1-4 SN gel (water content: 90 wt.-%); squares: PAAm-2-0.1 SN gel
(water content: 90 wt.-%); triangles: PAMPS-1-4/PAAm-2-0.1 DN gel (water
content: 90 wt.-%).

and 0.8 MPa, respectively, while PAMPS-1-4/PAAm-2-0.1 DN

gel sustains a stress of 17.2 MPa, which is more than 20 times
that sustained by the component SN gels. The fracture strain
Fig. 3. Photographs demonstrating how a DN gel sustains a high compression.
of the DN gel is k = 92 %, which is much higher than that of a) PAMPS-1-4 SN gel, b) PAMPS-1-4/PAAm-2-0.1 DN gel. Fracture stress:
both the PAMPS SN gel (k = 41 %) and the PAAm SN gel (k PAMPS SN gel, 0.4 MPa, PAMPS/PAAm DN gel, 17.2 MPa.
= 84 %). The stress±strain curve of the DN gel overlaps with
that of PAMPS SN gel at small strains, suggesting that the first
the molar ratio of the first to the second network, and the
network contributes to increasing the elastic stress and the
other is their crosslinking density. Figure 4 shows the effect of
second one to the strain. Figure 3 demonstrates how the DN
molar ratio of the second network to the first network on the
gel sustains a high compression while the PAMPS SN gel
fracture stress for PAMPS/PAAm DN gel. It is seen that a
breaks down easily.[5] The stretching efficiency of the DN gels
dramatic enhancement in the mechanical strength of the gel is
is also much greater than that of the component SN gels: the
obtained only when the molar ratio of the second network to
DN sample can sustain up to k = 75 % stretching and breaks
the first network is in the range of several to a few tens. This
at a stress of 0.68 MPa, while the PAMPS SN gel breaks at
is in strong contrast with conventional interprenetrated net-
only k = 6 % and a stress of 0.05 MPa.
work (IPN) hydrogels, which do not exhibit any substantial
Our systematic study of the surface friction shows that the
improvement in mechanical strength.[10]
surface friction of hydrogels does not conform to Amonton±
Coulomb's law, and exhibits very low frictional coefficients
when the two gel surfaces have a repulsive interaction with
each other. For example, when two pieces of negatively
1 2M
charged polyelectrolyte gels are allowed to slide over each 10 3M
1M 5M
other, the friction coefficient is as low as 10±3, which is on the
same order as that of a cartilage.[6±9] Prompted by the unique 0.5M
attributes of the hydrogels, we attempted to investigate the 10
0

wear properties of the DN gel against an aluminum pin using

0M (SN)
a pin-and-flat wear tester, and found that the PAMPS-1-4/
PAAm-2-0.1 gel containing 90 % water shows a wear rate of 10
-1

3 ” 10±7 mm3/Nm, measured at a sliding velocity of 0.05 m/s 0 10 20 30 40 50

nd st
60
under a load of 4.7 N (compressive stress of 0.1 MPa) for a
Fig. 4. Effect of the molar ratio of the second network to the first network on
sliding distance of 50 km. This pin wear rate is of the same or- the mechanical strength of the PAMPS-4-1/PAAm-x2-0.1 DN gels. The different
der as an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composition ratios of the second network to the first were obtained by immers-
(UHMWPE, GRU 1050, Kyosera Co.) control. ing the first network gel in solutions of the monomer constituting the second
network with various concentrations. Numbers on the curve denote the value of
We should emphasize that two structural parameters are x2, the monomer concentration at which the second network was polymerized.
crucial for obtaining these mechanically strong gels. One is The value at zero molar ratio is for the SN gel.

1156 Ó 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim http://www.advmat.de Adv. Mater. 2003, 15, No. 14, July 17
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We also found that the crosslinking density for the first and and poly(N,N¢-dimethyl acrylamide) (PDMAAm) as the sec-
second networks is critical for a dramatic increase in the me- ond network. The latter are used as soft contact lenses. The
chanical strength of DN gels. A notable increase in the me- results, showing a dramatic enhancement in the mechanical
chanical strength occurs when the first network is highly strength, are summarized in Table 1. These biocompatible hy-
crosslinked and the second one is loosely crosslinked. If we drogels have great potential as biomedical materials.
keep the crosslinking density of the first network constant at Since the polymers constituting the DN gels are miscible in
approximately 4 mol-% and change that of the second net- water, as confirmed by light scattering, and have no specific
work systematically from 0 to 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mol-%, all interaction with each other, as elucidated by NMR, the dra-
the PAMPS/PAAm DN gels show a similar elastic modulus, matic increase in the mechanical strength is due neither to
regardless of the crosslinking density of the second network. phase separation nor to molecular interaction between the
However, the highest fracture strength and strain are obtained two networks. Furthermore, the described experimental re-
when the second network has a crosslinking density of 0± sults show that the increased mechanical strength of the DN is
0.1 mol-%. Incorporation of a second polymer with a higher not simply attributable to an increase in the chemical cross-
crosslinking density results in substantial lowering of the linkage or physical entanglement between the two networks
mechanical strength of the DN gel. because DN gels with a loosely crosslinked second network
Use of the DN structure to obtain high-strength hydrogels exhibit the most prominent increase in the mechanical
is effective for a wide variety of network combinations, when strength. We assume that the presence of appropriate fluidity
the networks have appropriate structures, that is, a high molar (viscosity) to effectively dissipate the stress by the second net-
ratio of the first network to the second network, with the first work is crucial to enhance the strength. The highly crosslinked
network highly crosslinked and the second network loosely first network has a relatively high Young's modulus due to its
crosslinked. Some examples are summarized in Table 1. DN high crosslinking density but is rather brittle. For example,
gel consisting of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and PAAm shows a PAMPS SN gel fractures into many small pieces under a com-
fracture stress 21 times higher than that of the PAA SN gel. pression of 0.4 MPa, suggesting that cracks develop easily in
The mechanical strength of the copolymer gel composed of the gel (Fig. 3a). Similar brittle fracturing behaviors are ob-
AMPS and 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl acrylate (TFEA) (molar ratio served for PAMPS/PAAm DN gels whenever the crosslinking
of AMPS to TFEA is 3:1), P(AMPS-co-TFEA), increases 700 density of the second network is higher than 1 mol-%. How-
times when PAAm is incorporated as the second network. It ever, if the crosslinking density of the second network is
should be noted that biocompatible and mechanically strong 0.1 mol-%, which is the optimized condition, the gel can sus-
DN gels can be obtained by suitable combinations of natural tain up to 17 MPa compression and show only one or two
with synthetic polymers. For example, one can use collagen or large cracks at breaking. We have observed the process of
agarose as the first network and biocompatible synthetic poly- compression in situ using optical interference, and found nota-
mers such as poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (HEMA) ble birefringence under a certain strain for the DN gels pre-
pared at off-optimized conditions.
This indicates that the mechanical
Table 1. Compressive properties of hydrogels at room temperature.
stress applied is localized without ef-
First network Second network Water content Fracture stress Fracture strain rmaxDN/rmaxSN fective dissipation. However, the
[wt.-%] rmax [MPa] kmax [%] DN gel prepared at the optimized
PAMPS-1-4 [a] ± 92 0.4 41 ± condition shows very weak birefrin-
PAMPS-2.2-0.1 93 3.0 80 7.5
gence, which indicates that the me-
PAA-1-0.1 92 2.3 75 5.8
chanical stress is effectively and iso-
PAAm-2-0.1 90 17.2 92 43
PAMPS-1-8 ± 98 0.006 [b] 0.13 [b] ± tropically dissipated. This suggests
TFEA-1-0.1 52 1.6 [b] 4.9 [b] 267 that the loosely crosslinked second
PAA-1-4 ± 99 0.1 65 ± network effectively absorbs the
PAA-1-0.1 95 0.7 77 7.0 crack energy by deforming the net-
PAAm-1-0.1 89 2.1 95 21
work conformation and/or sliding
PAAm-1-1 ± 93 0.7 98 ±
PAAm-1-0.1 92 5.4 92 7.7
the physical entanglement points
P(AMPS-co-TFEA)-1-4 ± 98 0.03 73 ± along the chains to prevent the
AAm-1-0.1 93 21.0 97 700 crack growing to a macroscopic lev-
Collagen [c] ± 93 0.26 52 ± el. In other words, the increased me-
PDMAAm-1-0.1 87 2.9 53 11 chanical strength of DN gels is
Agarose [c] ± 96 0.02 20 ±
largely attributable to the effective
HEMA-2.5-0.1 66 2.4 87 120
Bacteria cellulose ± ± ± ± ± relaxation of locally applied stress
Gelatin 78 3.7 37 31 [d] and dissipation of the crack energy
through combinations of two net-
[a] P-x-y: P, x, and y denote the abbreviated polymer name, molar monomer concentration, and the crosslinker
concentration in mol-% with respect to the monomer, respectively. [b] Stretching properties. [c] Physically cross- works with different structure and
linked gel prepared from 2 wt.-% solution. [d] Relative to gelatin SN gel. densities.

Adv. Mater. 2003, 15, No. 14, July 17 http://www.advmat.de Ó 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1157
 15214095, 2003, 14, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.200304907 by Hebrew University Of Jerusalem, Wiley Online Library on [19/09/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
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It should be emphasized that, although the high-strength [8] J. P. Gong, Y. Iwasaki, Y. Osada, K. Kurihara, Y. Hamai, J. Phys. Chem. B
1999, 103, 6001.
DN gel has some similarities with regard to the preparation [9] J. P. Gong, Y. Iwasaki, Y. Osada, J. Phys. Chem. B 2000, 104, 3423.
process to IPNs, it is different in concept. IPN structure is [10] M. Santin, S. J. Huang, S. Iannace, L. Ambrosio, L. Nicolais, G. Peluso,
usually induced to combine various properties of each compo- Biomaterials 1996, 17, 1459.
[11] L. Ambrosio, R. DeSantis, L. Nicolais, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. H 1998, 212, 93.
nent material, such as adhesion to cells, water-absorbing abil- [12] J. P. Gong, G. Kagata, Y. Osada, J. Phys. Chem. B 1999, 103, 6007.
ity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, etc.; these IPN hydro-
gels do not exhibit any notable improvement in mechanical
strength in comparison to their original single-network struc- Enantioselective Discrimination of D- and
ture.[10] The DN gel differs also from a fiber-reinforced hydro- L-Phenylalanine by Chiral Polyaniline Thin Films**
gel, which consists of a mechanically tough ªdryº component
(hydrophobic plastics) and mechanically weak ªwetº compo- By Jiaxing Huang, Veronica M. Egan, Hailan Guo,
nent (hydrophilic gel), in that the mechanical properties of Jeong-Yeol Yoon, Alejandro L. Briseno, Iris E. Rauda,
the composite are basically determined by the tough ªdryº Robin L. Garrell, Charles M. Knobler, Feimeng Zhou,
component while the hydrophilic component behaves as a and Richard B. Kaner*
water absorber, playing practically no role in improving the
mechanical strength.[11] The high strength of the DN gels is Polyaniline is unique in the conjugated polymer family in
not due to a linear combination of two component networks, that it undergoes a non-redox reversible doping/de-doping pro-
like the common IPN or fiber-reinforced hydrogels, but due cess based on simple acid/base chemistry.[1] Doping of polyani-
to a nonlinear effect of the binary structure. Although both of line with a strong acid preferentially protonates the imine
the two individual networks are mechanically weak, that is, nitrogens, leading to an increase in conductivity from the insu-
the first one is stiff and brittle and the second soft and ductile, lating to the metallic regime.[2] The positive charge created
their combined DN gels are stiff but not brittle, ductile but along the backbone by protonation is counter-balanced by neg-
not soft. atively charged counter-ions created from the doping acid,
which causes a physical rearrangement of the polyaniline
chains to accommodate them. The counter-ions make very im-
Experimental portant contributions to the properties of polyaniline through
their interactions with the polymer backbone and/or their ef-
DN hydrogels were synthesized by a (two-step) sequential network forma-
tion technique. For example, the first network of the PAMPS-1-4/PAAm-2-0.1 fects on the packing and orientation of polymer chains. Coun-
DN gel was synthesized from an aqueous solution of 1 M 2-acrylamido-2- ter-ions can be used to improve solubility, processability, and
methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) containing 4 mol-% crosslinking agent, conductivity by using functionalized protonic acids.[3±7] Wal-
N,N¢-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA), and 0.1 mol-% initiator, 2-oxoglutaric
acid, in a reaction cell consisting of a pair of glass plates with 2 mm spacing. lace and co-workers[8,9] and Havinga et al.[10] demonstrated
This gel (first network) was then immersed in an aqueous solution of 2 M acryl- that chiral counter-ions can induce optical activity in achiral
amide (AAm), containing 0.1 mol-% MBAA and 0.1 mol-% 2-oxoglutaric acid,
for one day until equilibrium was reached. The second network was subse-
polyaniline. The polyaniline backbone is believed to adopt a
quently synthesized in the presence of the first network. The gel thus prepared helical conformation in the presence of chiral dopants.[10]
consists of two polymer networks entangled with each other. Details of the sam- Inspired by our previous experience in gas and liquid sepa-
ple preparation are described in [2].
The compressive stress±strain measurements were performed on water-swol- rations using polyaniline,[11,12] we suggested the possibility of
len gels using a tensile-compressive tester (Tensilon RTC-1310A, Orientec Co.). using chiral polyaniline for enantiomeric recognition.[13] The
The cylindrical gel sample of 9 mm diameter and 4 mm thickness was set on the key concept is that the chiral chain conformations induced by
lower plate and compressed by the upper plate, which was connected to a load
cell, at a strain rate of 0.1 %/min. A tensile tester (Tensilon RTC-1150A, Orien- the dopants are retained[14] when the dopants are removed
tec Co.) was used to carry out uniaxial stretching on specimens of 50 mm from solid films,[13,15] thus creating a novel chiral polymer
length, 5 mm breadth, and 3 mm height at a strain rate of 10 %/min. The strain
k under compression (or stretching) is defined as the change in the thickness (or
capable of recognizing a single enantiomer of an amino acid
length) relative to the freestanding thickness (or length) of the specimen. De- (Fig. 1). Here, we present visual, circular dichroism (CD), and
tails are described in [12].

Received: January 24, 2003 ±

Final version: April 4, 2003 [*] Prof. R. B. Kaner, Prof. R. L. Garrell, Prof. C. M. Knobler, J. Huang,
± Dr. V. M. Egan, Dr. H. Guo, Dr. J.-Y. Yoon
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and
[1] C. W. McCutchen, Lubrication of Joints, The Joints and Synovial Fluid,
Exotic Materials Institute
Academic, New York 1978, Vol. 10, p. 437.
University of California, Los Angeles
[2] J. P. Gong, T. Kurokawa, T. Narita, G. Kagata, Y. Osada, G. Nishimura,
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569 (USA)
M. Kinjo, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 5582.
E-mail: [email protected]
[3] M. Oka, K. Ushio, P. Kumar, K. Ikeuchi, S. Hyon, H. Nakamura, T. Fujita,
Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. H 2000, 214, 59. Prof. F. Zhou, A. L. Briseno, I. E. Rauda
[4] J. Stammen, S. Williams, D. N. Ku, R. E. Guldberg, Biomaterials 2001, 22, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
799. California State University, Los Angeles
[5] Movies of the deformation and fracture of PAMPS SN gel and PAMPS/ Los Angeles, CA 90032-8202 (USA)
PAAm DN gel under compression and cutting are available from the [**] The authors thank UCLA (R.B.K.), the American Chemical Society-Pe-
authors upon request. troleum Research Fund (37899-ACS) (F.Z.), and the NIH-SCORE sub-
[6] J. P. Gong, M. Higa, Y. Iwasaki, Y. Katsuyama, Y. Osada, J. Phys. Chem. project (GM 08101) (F.Z.) for financial support. J.H. acknowledges the
1997, 101, 5487. initial support for graduate study from Mr. George M. K. Lee through a
[7] J. P. Gong, Y. Osada, J. Chem. Phys. 1998, 109, 8062. LWSAM fellowship.

1158 Ó 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim DOI: 10.1002/adma.200304835 Adv. Mater. 2003, 15, No. 14, July 17