Abstract:
A kind of strong and fluorescent hybrid hydrogel graphene quantum dots (GQDs)-TiO
2/polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel was prepared via a simultaneous in-situ sol-gel method and free radical polymerization. In the hybrid hydrogel, TiO
2 and GQDs particles, which served as multifunctional crosslinkers and nano-fillers, were firmly bound to hydrophilic groups in the hydrogel network through noncovalent bonds such as hydrogen bonds. The strong non-covalent interactions among PAM, TiO
2 and GQDs endowed the gel with excellent mechanical properties. The elongation at break and tensile strength of GQDs-TiO
2/PAM (0.5wt%GQDs) hybrid hydrogels are 2412% and 181 kPa, respectively, which are 1.78 and 1.13 times that of TiO
2/PAM hydrogels. In addition, the introduction of GQDs also endowed the hybrid hydrogels with special fluorescence properties, which could emit obvious blue fluorescence under 365 nm ultraviolet light. Therefore, the hydrogel has great development potential in biomedicine, heavy metal ion detection, fluorescence probes, and other fields.