UM achieves breakthroughs in bioinspired hydrogel technology

Schematic illustration of how the concentric ice-templating technique constructs hydrogels with bioinspired circumferentially aligned fibrous structures, and a comparison of their performance with other hydrogels

A research team led by Lei Iek Man, assistant professor in the Department of Electromechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) at the University of Macau (UM), has developed a novel concentric ice-templating technique that constructs hydrogels with bioinspired circumferentially aligned fibrous structures. This breakthrough overcomes the limitations of traditional ice-templating methods, which can only produce simple structures such as honeycomb or lamellar structures. The new approach significantly improves the mechanical properties of hydrogels in terms of compression, toughness, and fatigue resistance, thereby expanding the scope of application of the ice-templating method and improving the mechanical properties of artificial hydrogels. The findings have been published in Science Advances, an internationally renowned multidisciplinary journal.
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