Pectin/PVA-Borax Hydrogel with Self-Healing Ability

Hydrogels are polymers with soft and high-water absorption characteristics similar to biological tissues, leading to several potential applications, such as artificial organs, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and strain sensor. Interestingly, hydrogels can be designed to heal themselves after being damaged. In this research, hydrogels with self-healing ability from pectin and polyvinyl alcohol were prepared by simple physical mixing. Borax was used as a crosslinking agent to obtain crosslinked hydrogel structure by the formation of dynamic boron ester bonds. Glycerol was also added to the hydrogels as an anti-freezing agent and a stabilizer. The microstructures, mechanical properties, self-healing ability and swelling properties of the pectin/PVA-borax hydrogels were characterized. The results indicate that the size of microporous structure, modulus, tensile strength, self-healing time, swelling, and equilibrium water content of the pectin/PVA hydrogels increases with the increasing borax contents.