Issue 38, 2022

A chemically fueled supramolecular glue for self-healing gels

Abstract

Chemically fueled supramolecular materials offer unique properties that include spatial and temporal control and even the ability to self-heal. Indeed, a few studies have demonstrated the ability to self-heal, however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we designed a peptide that forms a fibrillar network upon chemical fueling. We were surprised that the hydrogel could self-heal despite the lack of dynamics in the fiber assembly and disassembly. We explain this behavior by a mechanism that involves the chemically fueled peptide molecules that cannot self-assemble due to the lack of nucleation sites. When the fibers are perturbed, new nucleation sites form that help the assembly resulting in the healing of the damaged network. Furthermore, we generalized the behavior for other peptides. We refer to this non-assembling, chemically-fueled peptide as a molecular glue. In future work, we aim to explore whether this self-healing mechanism applies to more complex structures, narrowing the gap between biological and synthetic self-assemblies.

Graphical abstract: A chemically fueled supramolecular glue for self-healing gels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
01 7 2022
Accepted
01 9 2022
First published
15 9 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 11411-11421

A chemically fueled supramolecular glue for self-healing gels

J. Rodon-Fores, M. A. Würbser, M. Kretschmer, B. Rieß, A. M. Bergmann, O. Lieleg and J. Boekhoven, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 11411 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC03691F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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