Cellulose nanocrystal-reinforced thermally responsive dynamic hydrogel

Hydrogels are regarded as ideal tissue scaffold materials owing to their unique advantages, but problems such as low strength and easy cracking have become bottlenecks that limit their practical applicability. Constructing reinforced hydrogels is a widely studied approach for performance enhancement. Therefore, herein, cellulose nanocrystals were introduced as reinforcement into a thermally responsive hydrogel matrix through a Schiff base, achieving a cellulose nanocrystal-reinforced thermally responsive dynamic hydrogel. The CNC-reinforced hydrogel was characterized in detail, and the influence of CNCs on hydrogel properties was systematically investigated. Moreover, the thermally responsive and dynamic properties of the resulting hydrogels were tested to evaluate their mechanical performance. This work provides a feasible solution for the design of hydrogel-based tissue scaffold materials with long service life. Cellulose nanocrystals were employed to enhance the mechanical properties of thermally responsive dynamic hydrogels.