Issue 10, 2019

Manipulating the mechanical properties of biomimetic hydrogels with multivalent host–guest interactions

Abstract

Biomimetic hydrogels with hierarchical network structures are promising biomaterials for tissue engineering due to their unique mechanical properties. One successful biomimetic strategy for facile construction of high-performance hydrogels is to incorporate reversible crosslinks as sacrificial bonds into chemical polymer networks. By mimicking the unfolding–refolding functions of the skeletal muscle protein titin, the reversible crosslinks can reinforce the otherwise weak and brittle hydrogels. However, the contribution of multivalent reversible crosslinks to the overall hydrogel mechanical properties has rarely been investigated. Herein we present the biomimetic hydrogels with multivalent host–guest interactions as reversible crosslinks, which provide not only energy storage capacity, but also elevated energy dissipation capacity to the dually crosslinked networks, therefore leading to the improved hydrogel ductility and tensile strength. Our results also reveal the manner of multivalent host–guest crosslinks contributing to the hydrogel mechanical properties, including gelation rate, energy storage and dissipation, tensile hysteresis, and fast spontaneous recovery.

Graphical abstract: Manipulating the mechanical properties of biomimetic hydrogels with multivalent host–guest interactions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 8 2018
Accepted
28 9 2018
First published
29 9 2018

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2019,7, 1726-1733

Manipulating the mechanical properties of biomimetic hydrogels with multivalent host–guest interactions

B. Yang, Z. Wei, X. Chen, K. Wei and L. Bian, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2019, 7, 1726 DOI: 10.1039/C8TB02021C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements