A hydrogel includes: a partially or fully ionized cationic polymer and at least one selected from the group consisting of a partially or fully ionized anionic polymer and a low molecular weight compound having two or more anionic groups; or a partially or fully ionized anionic polymer and at least one selected from the group consisting of a partially or fully ionized cationic polymer and a low molecular weight compound having two or more cationic groups; and water. The hydrogel can be used for for producing clay with viscoelastic properties.

The present invention generally relates to droplets and/or emulsions, such as multiple emulsions. In some cases, the droplets and/or emulsions may be used in assays, and in certain embodiments, the droplet or emulsion may be hardened to form a gel. In some aspects, a heterogeneous assay can be performed using a gel. For example, a droplet may be hardened to form a gel, where the droplet contains a cell, DNA, or other suitable species. The gel may be exposed to a reactant, and the reactant may interact with the gel and/or with the cell, DNA, etc., in some fashion. For example, the reactant may diffuse through the gel, or the hardened particle may liquefy to form a liquid state, allowing the reactant to interact with the cell. As a specific example, DNA contained within a gel particle may be subjected to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification, e.g., by using PCR primers able to bind to the gel as it forms. As the DNA is amplified using PCR, some of the DNA will be bound to the gel via the PCR primer. After the PCR reaction, unbound DNA may be removed from the gel, e.g., via diffusion or washing. Thus, a gel particle having bound DNA may be formed in one embodiment of the invention.

The subject matter of this invention relates to hydrogel compositions and, more particularly, to hydrogel compositions comprising block copolymers (BCPs) capable of self-assembly into nanoparticles for the delivery and controlled release of therapeutic cargos.

The present invention is generally directed to beads, methods of making said beads, and methods of functionalizing said beads with one or more functional groups to form functionalized beads, such as universal functionalized beads, wherein the functional group can be a chemical group. In some embodiments, the beads can be gel beads.

A method for preparing an aerogel comprising nano attapulgite and phenolic aldehyde and a method for preparing abrasion-resistant vehicle tire. 80-100 weight distributions of rubber, 3-8 weight distributions of SiO.sub.2.nH.sub.2O, 3-6 weight distributions of an anti-aging agent, 3-4 weight distributions of a heat stabilizer, 3-5 weight distributions of a compatibilizing agent, and 3-12 weight distributions of the aerogel comprising the nano attapulgite and the phenolic aldehyde is selected as a raw material of the abrasion-resistant rubber material to prepare rubber composite material for the abrasion-resistant vehicle tire.

A method of forming a gel particle slurry includes providing a first solution that includes a cross-linkable hydrogel polymer macromer and an optional first crosslinker in a first depot and optionally a second solution in a second depot that is separated from the first depot by a mixing unit that includes a mixing element; and reversibly transferring the first solution and the optional second solution through the mixing unit between the first depot and the second depot such that the first solution and the optional second solution are mixed and agitated to form the gel particle slurry.

The present disclosure relates to triblock and pentablock copolymers and methods of making thereof. Aspects of the disclosure further relate to block copolymer hydrogels that exhibit both fatigue resistance and fracture resistance with superior rates of recovery.

An atomizing liquid gel with reversible phase transition characteristics includes: a sugar-based gelling agent, 0.1-3.0 wt %; an atomizing agent, 97.0-99.9 wt %; a molecule of the sugar-based gelling agent is a sugar molecule introduced with an amide group and/or an aryl group, and the sugar molecule optionally further includes at least one hydrophobic structural part selected from —C.sub.xH.sub.y, —O—C.sub.xB.sub.y and

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and x>2 and y>2. The atomizing liquid gel has characteristics of thermal reversible phase transition and/or shear reversible phase transition, a temperature of gel-sol phase transition is 100° C.-248° C., and a critical shear stress of the gel-sol phase transition is 40-800 Pa. Under heating and/or oscillation, the atomizing liquid gel converts from the gel state to a sol state, when the heating and/or oscillation are stopped, the atomizing liquid gel is quickly recovered from the sol state to the gel state.

A hydrogel of which the degradation is accurately controlled can be provided by a photodegradable hydrogel production method, the method comprising the steps of: reacting α-glucan having a weight average molecular weight of 2000 to 200,000 with a compound represented by formula I to introduce a group represented by formula II into the α-glucan; oxidizing the α-glucan having, introduced therein, the group represented by formula II with periodic acid or a periodate salt to introduce an aldehyde group into the α-glucan; and adding aminated carrageenan gel beads having polydopamine particles embedded therein to a gelling agent which has been prepared by introducing a group represented by formula II and an aldehyde group into α-glucan, and then causing the crosslinking reaction of the resultant product with a polythiol-type reducing agent to form the hydrogel.

Provided is a production method for a gel composition including steps (1) to (3) mentioned below: step (1) of mixing at room temperature a partial degradation product of the galactose moiety of galactoxyloglucan and an aqueous solvent to obtain a mixture; step (2) of cooling or freezing the mixture obtained in step (1); and step (3) of gelling the mixture cooled or frozen in step (2) by heating to obtain a gel composition that includes the galactose-partial degradation product.