TY - JOUR
T1 - Interfacial optimization of fiber-reinforced hydrogel composites for soft fibrous tissue applications
AU - Holloway, Julianne L.
AU - Lowman, Anthony M.
AU - Vanlandingham, Mark R.
AU - Palmese, Giuseppe R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding was provided through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, in addition to funding by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory through the Army Materials Center of Excellence Program, Contract W911NF-06-2-0013. The authors also wish to acknowledge Drexel University Core Research Facilities for use of the XPS and SEM. In particular, the XPS instrumentation facility was made possible by the NSF MRI-R 2 Grant (CBET-0959361).
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Meniscal tears are the most common orthopedic injuries to the human body, yet the current treatment of choice is a partial meniscectomy, which is known to lead to joint degeneration and osteoarthritis. As a result, there is a significant clinical need to develop materials capable of restoring function to the meniscus following an injury. Fiber-reinforced hydrogel composites are particularly suited for replicating the mechanical function of native fibrous tissues due to their ability to mimic the native anisotropic property distribution present. A critical issue with these materials, however, is the potential for the fiber-matrix interfacial properties to severely limit composite performance. In this work, the interfacial properties of an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber-reinforced poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel are studied. A novel chemical grafting technique, confirmed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, is used to improve UHMWPE-PVA interfacial adhesion. Interfacial shear strength is quantified using fiber pull-out tests. Results indicate significantly improved fiber-hydrogel interfacial adhesion after chemical grafting, where chemically grafted samples have an interfacial shear strength of 256.4 ± 64.3 kPa compared to 11.5 ± 2.9 kPa for untreated samples. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy of fiber surfaces after fiber pull-out reveal cohesive failure within the hydrogel matrix for treated fiber samples, indicating that the UHMWPE-PVA interface has been successfully optimized. Lastly, inter-fiber spacing is observed to have a significant effect on interfacial adhesion. Fibers spaced further apart have significantly higher interfacial shear strengths, which is critical to consider when optimizing composite design. The results in this study are applicable in developing similar chemical grafting techniques and optimizing fiber-matrix interfacial properties for other hydrogel-based composite systems.
AB - Meniscal tears are the most common orthopedic injuries to the human body, yet the current treatment of choice is a partial meniscectomy, which is known to lead to joint degeneration and osteoarthritis. As a result, there is a significant clinical need to develop materials capable of restoring function to the meniscus following an injury. Fiber-reinforced hydrogel composites are particularly suited for replicating the mechanical function of native fibrous tissues due to their ability to mimic the native anisotropic property distribution present. A critical issue with these materials, however, is the potential for the fiber-matrix interfacial properties to severely limit composite performance. In this work, the interfacial properties of an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber-reinforced poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel are studied. A novel chemical grafting technique, confirmed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, is used to improve UHMWPE-PVA interfacial adhesion. Interfacial shear strength is quantified using fiber pull-out tests. Results indicate significantly improved fiber-hydrogel interfacial adhesion after chemical grafting, where chemically grafted samples have an interfacial shear strength of 256.4 ± 64.3 kPa compared to 11.5 ± 2.9 kPa for untreated samples. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy of fiber surfaces after fiber pull-out reveal cohesive failure within the hydrogel matrix for treated fiber samples, indicating that the UHMWPE-PVA interface has been successfully optimized. Lastly, inter-fiber spacing is observed to have a significant effect on interfacial adhesion. Fibers spaced further apart have significantly higher interfacial shear strengths, which is critical to consider when optimizing composite design. The results in this study are applicable in developing similar chemical grafting techniques and optimizing fiber-matrix interfacial properties for other hydrogel-based composite systems.
KW - Composite
KW - Hydrogel
KW - Interfacial strength
KW - Meniscus
KW - Poly(vinyl alcohol)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84903721688&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84903721688&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.actbio.2014.05.004
DO - 10.1016/j.actbio.2014.05.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 24814880
AN - SCOPUS:84903721688
SN - 1742-7061
VL - 10
SP - 3581
EP - 3589
JO - Acta Biomaterialia
JF - Acta Biomaterialia
IS - 8
ER -