effectively exerting the reinforcement and self-healing of polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel nanocomposite via physically functionalized graphene oxide for biomedical applications

hydrogels mimic native tissue micro- environment due to their porous and hydrated molecular structure [1][5]. an emerging approach to reinforce polymeric hydrogels with different nanoparticles and to include multiple functionalities focuses on incorporating nanoparticles within the hydrogel network to obtain superior properties and tailored functionality with emphasis on biomedical and pharmaceutical applications [10]. nano poly(dopamine)-treated graphene oxide/poly (vinyl alcohol) (“dg-o/pva”) nanocomposite hydrogels were made and characterized in this article via different tests including sem, mechanical and self-healing test, ftir and self-healing test. g-o was modified with nano poly(dopamine) in aqueous solution. a combination of hydrogen bonding, strong adhesion of nano poly(dopamine) at the interface of pva and g-o sheets, and reinforcement by g-o resulted in increase in self-healing and mechanical properties including tensile modulus, ultimate tensile strength, and strain-to-failure by 29, 80, and 69%, respectively, at 0.75wt% dg-o loading of the pva as a result of increased interfacial interactions between pva, poly(dopamine) and g-o along with significant self-healing that makes it suitable to be applied as a wound dressing and drug carrier to release different types of medicine in the next step of this research.