Hydrogel-Based Macroscopic Click Chemistry

The click reaction has found good utility across various fields due to the characteristics of high efficiency, atom economy, simple and mild reaction conditions. Click chemistry is usually utilized for connecting components of microscopic level, while it is still unable for joining macroscopic building blocks. Materials consisting of macroscopic building blocks realize the flexible fabrication of three-dimensional structures at macroscopic level, exerting significance on parallel manufactures. In this work, we reported macroscopic click chemistry utilizing hydrogel as macroscopic building blocks. Hydrogels G1 and G2 were prepared by incorporating M1 (N,N′-dimethyl-1,2-ethanediamine) and P1 (alkyne functionalized polyethylene glycol) respectively, where polymer chains formed through diffusion-induced amino-yne click reaction entangled different hydrogel networks together. Additionally, chain-like aggregates and complicated 3D structures such as tetrahedron and quadrangular pyramid were constructed based on the adhesion of the hydrogel blocks. The approach enables us to find more possibilities in the delicate designation of 3D aggregations as well as large-scale manufacturing.