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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Advanced Science

Hydraulic Pressure‐Programmed Molecular Transport in Tough Hydrogels

  • Yijie Cheng1
  • Shahd Alnasser2
  • Akhiri Zannat1
  • Zhenda He1
  • Jiayi Zeng3
  • Lenan Zhang3
  • Sungmin Hong4
  • Xinyue Liu1
4 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan USA
  2. 2Department of Mechanical Engineering Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan USA
  3. 3Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Cornell University Ithaca New York USA
  4. 4U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center Construction Engineering Research Laboratory Champaign Illinois USA
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Abstract

Molecular transport through polymer networks, including hydrogels and biological matrices, underpins many applications ranging from water filtration and gas separation to drug delivery and cell culture. Conventional strategies for regulating transport in polymer networks primarily focus on tuning molecular diffusion through network mesh size and polymer chemistry, whereas convection is often considered negligible because nanoscale‐mesh networks typically exhibit low fluid permeability. Although hydraulic pressure is a well‐established driving force for convection in porous media, extending pressure‐driven convection to non‐porous polymer networks has remained fundamentally challenging because they can undergo substantial deformation or fracture under pressure gradients. Here, we demonstrate that hydraulic pressure applied across mechanically tough and grid‐supported hydrogels enables robust and tunable solute transport while maintaining structural integrity. The characteristic transport time can be experimentally modulated by up to 65‐fold, consistent with a coupled diffusion–convection model. Beyond tuning transport kinetics, applied pressure enhances size‐ and charge‐dependent transport selectivity by up to 5.4‐fold compared to pressure‐free conditions. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate pressure‐programmed antimicrobial delivery that dynamically controls doxorubicin transport while blocking bacterial penetration. These findings identify pressure‐regulated convection as an underexplored mechanism for controlling transport in polymer networks.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{cheng2026hydraulic,
  title = {{Hydraulic Pressure‐Programmed Molecular Transport in Tough Hydrogels}},
  author = {Yijie Cheng and Shahd Alnasser and Akhiri Zannat and Zhenda He and Jiayi Zeng and Lenan Zhang and Sungmin Hong and Xinyue Liu},
  journal = {Advanced Science},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1002/advs.77159},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.77159},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Hydraulic Pressure‐Programmed Molecular Transport in Tough Hydrogels
AU  - Yijie Cheng
AU  - Shahd Alnasser
AU  - Akhiri Zannat
AU  - Zhenda He
AU  - Jiayi Zeng
AU  - Lenan Zhang
AU  - Sungmin Hong
AU  - Xinyue Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/20
JO  - Advanced Science
DO  - 10.1002/advs.77159
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.77159
AB  - Molecular transport through polymer networks, including hydrogels and biological matrices, underpins many applications ranging from water filtration and gas separation to drug delivery and cell culture. Conventional strategies for regulating transport in polymer networks primarily focus on tuning molecular diffusion through network mesh size and polymer chemistry, whereas convection is often considered negligible because nanoscale‐mesh networks typically exhibit low fluid permeability. Although hydraulic pressure is a well‐established driving force for convection in porous media, extending pressure‐driven convection to non‐porous polymer networks has remained fundamentally challenging because they can undergo substantial deformation or fracture under pressure gradients. Here, we demonstrate that hydraulic pressure applied across mechanically tough and grid‐supported hydrogels enables robust and tunable solute transport while maintaining structural integrity. The characteristic transport time can be experimentally modulated by up to 65‐fold, consistent with a coupled diffusion–convection model. Beyond tuning transport kinetics, applied pressure enhances size‐ and charge‐dependent transport selectivity by up to 5.4‐fold compared to pressure‐free conditions. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate pressure‐programmed antimicrobial delivery that dynamically controls doxorubicin transport while blocking bacterial penetration. These findings identify pressure‐regulated convection as an underexplored mechanism for controlling transport in polymer networks.
SN  - 2198-3844
ER  -