High-Strength, Strongly Bonded Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Cartilage Repair.

Polyacrylamide-based hydrogels are widely used as potential candidates for cartilage replacement. However, their bioapplicability is sternly hampered due to their limited mechanical strength and puncture resistance. In the present work, the strength of polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogels was increased using titanium oxide (TiO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) separately and a combination of TiO with CNTs in a PAM matrix, which was interlinked by the bonding between nanoparticles and polymers with the deployment of density functional theory (DFT) approach.