Tough, Rapidly Swelling Thermoplastic Elastomer Hydrogels for Hemorrhage Control

摘要: We present a novel elastomer with an amphiphilic triblock/graft architecture, allowing it to rapidly swell in water and form tough hydrogel. The design was motivated by uncontrolled hemorrhage, responsible for 80–90% of potentially survivable deaths US soldiers over the past 15 years. polymer is 5.7 times as absorbent 3 state art gauze-based hemostatic dressing. It swells equilibrium within seconds phosphate buffered saline due microphase-separated morphology featuring continuous mobile ionic phase supported hydrophobic glassy domains rubbery linkages, observed transmission electron microscopy small-angle neutron scattering. Thickness-dependent swelling much order magnitude faster than many hydrogels literature, yet toughness comparable function content. combined gauze swelling, fiber-reinforced hydrogel composite promising mechanical properties.