Nanogel Crosslinking-Based Belousov–Zhabotinsky Self-Oscillating Polyacrylamide Gel with Improved Mechanical Properties and Fast Oscillatory Response

The Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) self-oscillating gel is a unique actuator suited for studying the behavior of intelligent soft robots. However, the traditional BZ self-oscillating polyacrylamide (PAAm) gel is easily broken and is slow to response to stimuli, which limits its practical application. Therefore, the preparation of BZ gels with sensitive responses to external stimuli and desirable, robust mechanical properties remains a challenge. In this work, PAAm-activated nanogels with unpolymerized double bonds are used as nanocrosslinkers to synthesize a nanogel crosslinking-based BZ (NCBZ) self-oscillating PAAm gel, whose mechanical properties, for example, antipuncture, cutting, and tensile properties, are superior to those of traditional PAAm BZ-self-oscillating gels. The oscillatory period of the traditional gel is much longer than that of the corresponding homogeneous BZ system, resulting from the slow response of the gel to changes in redox potential, whereas large, interconnected pores inside the NCBZ gel provide efficient channels for rapid species transport, supporting fast response of the gel, which results in almost the same period of chemomechanical oscillations as the homogeneous system under the same conditions. Scanning electron microscopy results show that the NCBZ gel is more stable than the traditional BZ PAAm gel after 7 h of oscillation. Our results make it possible to prepare robust gel motors and provide promising application prospects for smart soft robots, actuators, sensors, tissue engineering, and other applications.