Multifunctional Clay/PNIPAM Hydrogel Incorporating HxMoO3 Plasmonic Quantum Dot

Abstract

Functional hydrogel is becoming a frequently used material in various fields, especially in biological and medical applications. In order to overcome the barriers of low uniformity of structure and lack of energy dissipation effect in common hydrogel, in this work a strategy of doping plasmonic HxMoO3 quantum dots into PNIPAM (poly (N-isopropylacrylamide)) hydrogel to proceed its multifunctionalization is developed. This quantum dots-induced tactic could effectuate the enhancement of photothermal conversion, mechanical property, adhesion, and self-healing performance simultaneously. In particular, for adhesion performance, the toughness value could be elevated to over 2500 J m−2 efficiently. Further, the enhancement mechanism behind the extraordinary adhesion performance is studied, and it can be contributed to the synergistic effect of pore structure regulation and abundant hydrogen bond, which are both beneficial to the interaction between composite hydrogel and solid surface. Subsequently, based on its extraordinary adhesion and self-healing performance, the applicability of HxMoO3/PNIPAM hydrogel as a MØ growth substrate is investigated on wound dressing, and the experimental result demonstrates its excellent MØ growth-promoting activity.