On September 21, 2021, ChemRxiv surpassed the milestone of 10,000 preprints posted to ChemRxiv.org! The entire ChemRxiv team would like to thank our authors for their contributions over the last four years. These preprints have been viewed and downloaded more than 28 million times, an indication of their benefit to the chemistry community and beyond. […]
On September 21, 2021, ChemRxiv surpassed the milestone of 10,000 preprints posted toChemRxiv.org! The entire ChemRxiv team would like to thank our authors for their contributions over the last four years. These preprints have been viewed and downloaded more than 28 million times, an indication of their benefit to the chemistry community and beyond. We are deeply grateful for your support and appreciate your willingness to share your research with the world via ChemRxiv!
The 10,000th preprint posted to ChemRxiv was “Single-Macromolecular Level Imaging of a Hydrogel Structure,” authored by researchers from Hokkaido University and Tohoku University: Ryuji Kiyama, Takayuki Nonoyama, Sedlacik Tomas, Hiroshi Jinnai, and Jian Ping Gong.
I sat down with Dr. Jian Ping Gong of Hokkaido University, the PI of the group that posted this research, to find out more about their recent preprint:
Why did you decide to submit this recent preprint?
This work is going to be submitted to a journal soon. However, we have another paper using the technique invented in this work that was accepted recently and going to be published before this paper. We decided to submit this preprint so that it can be cited properly.
Did you have any prior experience with preprints?
Yes, we have submitted preprints before, including these two to ChemRxiv:
- Crack Tip Field of a Double-Network Gel: Visualizing Covalent Bond Scission by Mechanoradical Polymerization
- Toughening Hydrogels Through Force-triggered Chemical Reactions that Lengthen Polymer Strands
Can you give us a brief summary of the research shared in your preprint?
Observation of the synthetic polymer network structure of hydrogels in real space remains a challenge. Herein, for the first time, we developed a novel mineral-staining method for transmission electron microscopy observation to visualise the polyelectrolyte hydrogel network in its unperturbed conformation with nanometre resolution. The molecular structure on surface and bulk hydrogels exhibited significant structural features that provide insights regarding the friction and fracture of polymeric hydrogel materials.
What feedback have you received about your preprint (or past preprints)?
We received an invitation to submit our work to a journal.
What other research are you and your group doing?
Our group is working on molecular design, synthesis and understanding of functional hydrogels, with a large effort on tough gels including double network hydrogels. We also collaborate with medical doctors for biological application of the hydrogels. Please see ourlab website for more information.