Gels and hydrogels

Strong, tough, rapid-recovery, and fatigue-resistant hydrogels made of picot peptide fibres

Fig. 2 from Bin Xue et al. “Strong, tough, rapid-recovery, and fatigue-resistant hydrogels made of picot peptide fibres”: Characterisation of supramolecular and picot GK11 peptide fibres without and with metal Cu2+ coordination. a AFM images of the fibres formed by the self-assembly of GK11 in the absence (top) and presence (bottom) of Cu2+. The graphs below the images correspond to the diameter distributions of the fibres. Scale bar = 1 μm. b, c CD spectrum (b) and FT-IR spectroscopy (c) of the self-assembled GK11 peptide with (GK11/Cu2+) and without Cu2+ (GK11). d As for (a), but for picot fibres (top) and metal ion-clad picot fibres (bottom) formed by GK11 linked with polyacrylamide in the absence and presence of Cu2+. Scale bar = 1 μm. NANOSENSORS PointProbe Plus PPP-SEIHR AFM probes for soft tapping mode were used.

Hydrogels are promising soft materials as tissue engineering scaffolds, stretchable sensors, and soft robotics. * Yet, it remains challenging to develop synthetic hydrogels with mechanical… Read More »Strong, tough, rapid-recovery, and fatigue-resistant hydrogels made of picot peptide fibres