Abstract: Covalently crosslinked hydrogels of curdlan were designed and fabricated through electrophilic addition reaction using divinyl sulfone (DVS) as the crosslinker. The morphology, swelling behavior, and mechanical performance of the gels obtained under different preparation conditions were investigated by FT-IR, SEM and texture analyses. The experimental results showed that the resulting hydrogels exhibited dense and uniform structures, and their swelling ratios depended on the crosslinking density. The strength and toughness of curdlan hydrogels could be tuned by adjusting the amount of DVS, curdlan concentration and alkaline concentration.