Fast Contact of Solid-Liquid Interface Created High Strength Multi-Layered Cellulose Hydrogels with Controllable Size

Novel onion-like and multi-layered tubular cellulose hydrogels were constructed, for the first time, from the cellulose solution in a 7% NaOH/12% urea aqueous solvent by changing the shape of the gel cores. In our findings, the contacting of the cellulose solution with the surface of the agarose gel rod or sphere loaded with acetic acid led to the close chain packing to form immediately a gel layer, as a result of the destruction of the cellulose inclusion complex by acid through inducing the cellulose self-aggregation. Subsequently, multi-layered cellulose hydrogels were fabricated via a multi-step interrupted gelation process. The size, layer thickness and inter-layer space of the multi-layered hydrogels could be controlled by adjusting the cellulose concentrations, the gel core diameter and the contacting time of the solid–liquid interface. The multi-layered cellulose hydrogels displayed good architectural stability and solvent resistance. Moreover, the hydrogels exhibited high compressive strength and...