Spongy Gels by a Top-Down Approach from Polymer Fibrous Sponges

Shaohua Jiang, Gaigai Duan, Ute Kuhn, Michaela Mörl, Volker Altstädt, Alexander L. Yarin, Andreas Greiner

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    60 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Ultralight cellular sponges offer a unique set of properties. We show here that solvent uptake by these sponges results in new gel-like materials, which we term spongy gels. The appearance of the spongy gels is very similar to classic organogels. Usually, organogels are formed by a bottom-up process. In contrast, the spongy gels are formed by a top-down approach that offers numerous advantages for the design of their properties, reproducibility, and stability. The sponges themselves represent the scaffold of a gel that could be filled with a solvent, and thereby form a mechanically stable gel-like material. The spongy gels are independent of a time-consuming or otherwise demanding in situ scaffold formation. As solvent evaporation from gels is a concern for various applications, we also studied solvent evaporation of wetting and non-wetting liquids dispersed in the sponge.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)3285-3288
    Number of pages4
    JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
    Volume56
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017 Mar 13

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2017 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

    Keywords

    • electrospinning
    • gels
    • sponges

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Catalysis
    • General Chemistry

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