Fiber reinforced hydrogels and methods of making same

A method of fabricating a composite material comprising the steps of:

• using a multilayer extrusion process to combine two materials into a composite material, the multilayer extrusion process including the steps of:
• providing a matrix material, where the matrix material is a hydrogel;
• providing a plurality of fibers;
• forming a first layer of matrix material;
• forming a second layer of fibers on top of the first layer of matrix material to form a multilayer composite;
• slicing the multilayer composite into a first multilayer composite and a second multilayer composite;
• placing the first multilayer composite onto the second multilayer composite to form a third multilayer composite;
• repeating the slicing step and layering steps until matrix material and plurality of fibers forms the composite material comprising a fiber reinforced hydrogel;
• dissolving the fiber reinforced hydrogel into a solution of water and a crosslinker;
• evaporating the water to form a dry film;
• crosslinking the dry film;
• and
• swelling the dry film with water to form a second fiber reinforced hydrogel.