image: A stretched 3-D printed model of a human lumbar vertebrae (L1-L5) connected with intervertebral hydrogel disks illustrates the versatility of the instantly tough bonding approach to achieve complex shaped stacks of hydrogels, combined with other materials in a rapid prototyping approach. The eight bonding procedures require less than 3 min (see also Video V3). Hydrogels may in the future serve as engineered replacements of intervertebral discs. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the June 21, 2017, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by D. Wirthl at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Linz, Austria, and colleagues was titled, "Instant tough bonding of hydrogels for soft machines and electronics." view more
Credit: [Credit: Soft Electronics Laboratory, Linz Institute of Technology]