POS3-0203
Fabrication of Shape Erasable Liquid-Core Hydrogel Fiber
Topic
S3. Processing / Fabrications (Emerging Horizons in Polymer Processing and Fabrication)
When and Where
Sep 30, 2026
08:30 - 09:30
Room 301 (Grand Ballroom)
Session Chairs
Heesuk KIM
Jinhye BAE
Presenter(s)
Yunjin Lee (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Hydrogel fibers are promising for soft biomaterials and actuators due to their biocompatibility, flexibility, and processability. However, conventional hydrogel fibers typically possess fixed crosslinked networks after fabrication, limiting internal mobility and hindering shape reconfiguration. To address this challenge, we designed a core-shell hydrogel fiber composed of a mechanically stable shell that preserves shape integrity and a liquid core that provides mobility through a reversible sol-gel transition. This core is formed via interface-confined, hydrogen bond-driven solidification between tannic acid and a gelatin-based polymeric ink. The resulting fibers can be readily deformed into various shapes at elevated temperatures, where the inner core becomes liquefied, and subsequently retain the programmed shape upon cooling as the core re-gels. These findings demonstrate that liquid-core hydrogel fibers can serve as temperature-responsive, shape-erasable, and reconfigurable soft polymer platforms.
