Also: water gels, double-network hydrogels
Hydrogels are soft, water-filled polymer networks used in contact lenses, wound care, and tissue engineering.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Wichterle and Lím introduced hydrophilic gels for biological use, leading to soft contact lenses.
Built / tested: soft contact lenses
As reported in: WICHTERLE, LÍM (1960). Hydrophilic Gels for Biological Use. Nature. doi:10.1038/185117a0
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Drury and Mooney reviewed hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering.
As reported in: Drury, Mooney (2003). Hydrogels for tissue engineering: scaffold design variables and applications. Biomaterials. doi:10.1016/S0142-9612(03)00340-5
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Gong and colleagues made double-network hydrogels with very high strength.
As reported in: Gong, Katsuyama, Kurokawa et al. (2003). Double‐Network Hydrogels with Extremely High Mechanical Strength. Advanced Materials. doi:10.1002/adma.200304907
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Sun and colleagues made hydrogels stretching over 20 times their length.
As reported in: Sun, Zhao, Illeperuma et al. (2012). Highly stretchable and tough hydrogels. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature11409