Figure 3.

Demonstration of strain to rupture the network and the self-healing capacity of 10% ox-alg samples prepared with semicarbazide and hydrazide cross-linkers. (a) Strain sweeps from 0% to 800% strain using oxime, semicarbazone, hydrazone and hydrogels, measured at 10 rad/s. (b) self-healing capacity with semicarbazide and hydrazide cross-linkers. The hydrogels were submitted to three strain cycles. Initially a low strain (1%) was applied, followed by three cycles of high strain (600%), to rupture the network, and low strain (1%), to allow recovery. The semicarbazone and hydrazone gels rapidly self-heal. (c) Macroscopic self-healing of the hydrogels. From left to right, the colored gels were formed (12 mm diameter, 2 mm thickness), cut in half, left to self-heal for four hours, and then tested at 24 h.