Effect of a Fiber Raw Material Structure on the Properties of Cellulose/Polyacrylamide Double-Network Antifreezing Conductive Hydrogels Prepared in an AlCl₃/ZnCl₂ Aqueous System.
- 1Zhejiang Academy of Forestry, Liuhe Road 399, Hangzhou 310023, China.
- 2College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Liaoning Technical University, Zhonghua Road 47, Fuxin 123000, China.
Abstract
The trade-off between mechanical properties and ionic conductivity, together with low-temperature failure, restricts the practical application of ionically conductive hydrogels. In this work, four bleached pulp boards (eucalyptus, pine, bagasse and cotton) were dissolved in an AlCl₃/ZnCl₂ aqueous solution, followed by in situ polymerization of acrylamide to fabricate cellulose/polyacrylamide double-network conductive hydrogels. The cotton-based gel exhibited the best pristine tensile performance (105 kPa, 1566%) and the highest room temperature ionic conductivity (50.5 mS/cm). At -30 °C, except for pure PAM (which froze beyond the load cell limit), the other five gels remained soft (stress at 70% strain only 1.13-1.35 times that at room temperature). After freeze-thaw cycles, the tensile strengths of the bagasse and pine gels increased by 52% and 46%, respectively, whereas that of the cotton-based gel decreased by 37%. At -40 °C, the pine-based gel retained the best conductivity (0.83 mS/cm, 5.1% retention). In addition, the gels exhibited strain-dependent electrical resistance responses at the material level. The structure-property correlations indicate that the influence of the fiber source does not depend solely on the degree of polymerization, but arises from the combined effects of the aggregation state of regenerated cellulose, pore wall architecture, dynamic hydrogen bonding and water-binding capability on ion channel continuity, low-temperature ion transport and freeze-thaw-induced network reorganization. This study provides a material-level experimental basis for selecting fiber raw materials for antifreezing conductive hydrogels. Device-level performance remains to be validated.
Related
- Transparent, Conductive and Hydrophobic Cellulose Paper Fabricated by Photopolymerization
- Mechanically Robust and Highly Conductive Cellulose Nanopaper Electrodes Enabled by Polyaniline-Graphene Hybrid Networks for Flexible Supercapacitors
- Linker Symmetry Lowering as a Strategy to Tune Electronic Properties in Two‐Dimensional Conductive MOFs
- Modulating the Electronic Properties of Conductive Conjugated Coordination Polymers with Atomic-Level Precision.
- Supramolecular modulation of the mechanical properties of amino acid-functionalized cellulose nanocrystal films
BibTeX
@article{zhuang2026effect,
title = {{Effect of a Fiber Raw Material Structure on the Properties of Cellulose/Polyacrylamide Double-Network Antifreezing Conductive Hydrogels Prepared in an AlCl₃/ZnCl₂ Aqueous System.}},
author = {Xiaowei Zhuang and Shuqi Guo and Yue Liu and Zhijun Wu and Yongshun Feng and Hui Qiao and Guoqiang Zhu and Xin Pan},
journal = {Gels (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/gels12100865},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42929900},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Effect of a Fiber Raw Material Structure on the Properties of Cellulose/Polyacrylamide Double-Network Antifreezing Conductive Hydrogels Prepared in an AlCl₃/ZnCl₂ Aqueous System.
AU - Xiaowei Zhuang
AU - Shuqi Guo
AU - Yue Liu
AU - Zhijun Wu
AU - Yongshun Feng
AU - Hui Qiao
AU - Guoqiang Zhu
AU - Xin Pan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
JO - Gels (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/gels12100865
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42929900
AB - The trade-off between mechanical properties and ionic conductivity, together with low-temperature failure, restricts the practical application of ionically conductive hydrogels. In this work, four bleached pulp boards (eucalyptus, pine, bagasse and cotton) were dissolved in an AlCl₃/ZnCl₂ aqueous solution, followed by in situ polymerization of acrylamide to fabricate cellulose/polyacrylamide double-network conductive hydrogels. The cotton-based gel exhibited the best pristine tensile performance (105 kPa, 1566%) and the highest room temperature ionic conductivity (50.5 mS/cm). At -30 °C, except for pure PAM (which froze beyond the load cell limit), the other five gels remained soft (stress at 70% strain only 1.13-1.35 times that at room temperature). After freeze-thaw cycles, the tensile strengths of the bagasse and pine gels increased by 52% and 46%, respectively, whereas that of the cotton-based gel decreased by 37%. At -40 °C, the pine-based gel retained the best conductivity (0.83 mS/cm, 5.1% retention). In addition, the gels exhibited strain-dependent electrical resistance responses at the material level. The structure-property correlations indicate that the influence of the fiber source does not depend solely on the degree of polymerization, but arises from the combined effects of the aggregation state of regenerated cellulose, pore wall architecture, dynamic hydrogen bonding and water-binding capability on ion channel continuity, low-temperature ion transport and freeze-thaw-induced network reorganization. This study provides a material-level experimental basis for selecting fiber raw materials for antifreezing conductive hydrogels. Device-level performance remains to be validated.
SN - 2310-2861
ER -