近日，电子科技大学崔家喜及其研究组在共价交联聚合物中，通过多循环膨胀实现了自调节生长。该项研究成果发表在2024年12月6日出版的《中国高分子科学杂志》上。

有机体能够通过整合外部环境提供的营养而自我生长。当他们长大时，这个过程会减慢。在该研究中，课题组通过一种简单的膨胀聚合策略模拟了这种自我调节的生长，在这种策略中，原始网络中的拉伸聚合物链提供熵弹性，以限制高生长周期中的生长。

以典型的共价交联聚合物为例，如丙烯酰胺基水凝胶和氢氧烷基弹性体，研究人员证明了交联聚合物可以通过膨胀聚合过程，吸收可聚合的化合物以扩大其尺寸，但随着生长周期的增加，生长程度变得越来越小，直到达到平台期。除了它们的尺寸，这些材料变得更硬，在溶剂中表现出更小的溶胀能力。

他们的工作不仅为调整交联聚合物的性能提供了一种新的生长模式，而且揭示了交联聚合物在多循环膨胀条件下的潜在机制。

附：英文原文

Title: Multi-Cyclic Swelling for Self-Regulated Growth of Covalently Crosslinked Polymers

Author: De-Fu Zhu, Hong Wang, Jian Chen, Xin-Hong Xiong, Jia-Xi Cui

Issue&Volume: 2024-12-06

Abstract: Organisms are capable of self-growth through the integration of the nutrients provided by the external environment. This process slows down when they grow. In this study, we mimicked this self-regulated growth via a simple swelling-polymerization strategy in which the stretching polymer chains in the original networks provide entropic elasticity to restrict growth in high growth cycles. Using typical covalently crosslinked polymers, such as acrylamide-based hydrogels and HBA-based elastomers, as examples, we demonstrate that the crosslinked polymers can absorb polymerizable compounds through a swelling-polymerization process to expand their sizes, but the growth extent becomes smaller with increasing growth cycle until reaching a plateau. In addition to their size, these materials become stiffer and exhibit less swelling ability in solvents. Our work not only provides a new growing mode to tune the properties of crosslinked polymers but also discloses the underlying mechanism of crosslinked polymers in multi-cyclic swelling conditions.

DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3268-z

Source: https://www.cjps.org/en/article/doi/10.1007/s10118-025-3268-z/