Self-healing supramolecular hydrogel of poly(vinyl alcohol)/chitosan carbon dots

Supramolecular hydrogels are non-covalent three-dimensional networked materials with many advantages compared to covalently cross-linked ones. In this present work, a supramolecular polymer hydrogel composed of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan carbon dots (CDs) was prepared by using the freezing/thawing method. To demonstrate the performance characteristics of such a polymer hydrogel, infrared spectrum, SEM, thermal analysis, swelling ratio, rheological study, self-healing test, etc., were adopted. The result showed that PVA/CDs supramolecular hydrogel not only has excellent self-healing property, but also has good thermal stability. This study work shows the great potential of the PVA/CDs hydrogel as an exciting polymer hydrogel material in the field of environmental management and biological medicine to design multifunctional materials. The simple nontoxic ingredients may also make the hydrogels suitable substitutes for biomedical applications pending further research.