Ethanol-Induced Responsive Behavior of Natural Polysaccharide Hydrogels

Smart materials with stimuli-switchable properties exist widely in nature. In recent years, further advances in biomimicry have driven extensive research on stimuli-responsive hydrogels. Although various types of stimuli-responsive hydrogels are widely explored and stimuli-responsive polysaccharide hydrogels have been partially investigated, there are few studies on solvent-responsive polysaccharide hydrogels. Moreover, the application scenarios of solvent-responsive polysaccharide hydrogels need to be further expanded. In this paper, we prepare double-network cross-linked polysaccharide hydrogels (HEGh) using two natural polysaccharides, gellan gum, and hyaluronic acid. Hydrogels exhibit solvent-responsive properties to ethanol (EtOH) in terms of mechanical properties and light transmittance. The mechanism of the EtOH-responsive behaviors of hydrogels is analyzed, and the possible application of hydrogel is also discussed, which expands new ideas for the design of solvent-responsive polysaccharide hydrogel materials.