Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2018 Jul 16;9:2740. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05222-4

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© The Author(s) 2018

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

PMC Copyright notice

Fig. 1 — Fabrication and structure of C-IPN hydrogels. a Process for fabricating C-IPN hydrogels. First, PEDOT:PSS hydrogels are formed from aqueous solutions of PEDOT:PSS by using ionic liquid to screen the electrostatic repulsions between PEDOT:PSS microgels, enabling them to aggregate into a macroscopically connected network. Second, the PEDOT:PSS hydrogel is infiltrated with acrylic acid, bisacrylamide, and an azo-initiator. Finally, the polyacrylic acid network is formed by polymerizing the monomers in water at 70 °C. b Various large shapes made by casting the PEDOT:PSS/acrylic acid mixture into different silicone soap molds. Scale bars are 1 cm. c, d C-IPN can be micropatterned into pyramidal structures with features as small as 10 μm by casting into silicon molds. Scale bar is 200 μm c and 100 μm d. e Cross-sectional SEM image of freeze-dried C-IPN showing that the final gel is homogeneous and porous. Scale bar is 100 μm. f FTIR spectra of PEDOT:PSS, PAAc, and C-IPN, showing a clear presence of PAAc within the C-IPN composite