Molecular engineering metal coordination interactions for strong, tough, fast-recovery hydrogels
Load bearing tissues such as muscles and cartilages typically show high elasticity, toughness and fast recovery rates. However, combining such mechanical properties in the lab to build synthetic biomaterials is fundamentally challenging. In a new study now published on Science Advances, Wenxu Sun and a research team in physics, engineering mechanics and smart devices in China, developed a strong, tough and fast-recovery hydrogel. The team engineered the material using crosslinkers with cooperative dynamic interactions. They designed a histidine-rich decapeptide (10 amino acid chain) containing two tandem (consecutive) zinc (Zn) binding motifs to facilitate thermodynamic stability, stronger binding strength and faster binding rate of the construct, compared to single binding protein motifs or isolated ligand proteins. The engineered hybrid network hydrogels with the peptide zinc complex exhibited high stability, toughness and fast recovery in seconds. The research team expect the scaffolds to effectively manage load-bearing tissue engineering applications and function as...