State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, China.
Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Jul 22;12(29):33152-33162. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c06164. Epub 2020 Jul 10.
Hydrogels with ultrafast response to environmental stimuli, possessing robust structural integrity and rapid self-recovery, have been considered as promising platforms for numerous applications, for example, in biomimetic materials and nanomedicine. Inspired by the bundled fibrous structure of actin, we developed a robust and ultrafast thermoresponsive fibrous hydrogel (TFH) by fully utilizing the weak noncovalent bonds and strong covalently cross-linked semiflexible electrospun fibrous nets. The TFH exhibits an ultrafast response (within 10 s), rapid self-recovery rate (74% within 10 s), tunable tensile strength (3-380 kPa), and high toughness (∼1560 J/m) toward temperature. A multiscale orientation is considered to play a key role in the excellent mechanical properties at the fibrous mesh, fiber, and molecular scales. Furthermore, to take advantage of this TFH adequately, a novel kind of noodle-like hydrogel for thermo-controlled protein sorption based on the TFH is prepared, which exhibits high stability and ultrafast sorption properties. The bioinspired platforms hold promise as artificial skins and "smart" sorption membrane carriers, which provide a unique bioactive environment for tissue engineering and nanomedicine.
具有超快环境刺激响应的水凝胶，具有强大的结构完整性和快速的自恢复能力，被认为是许多应用的有前途的平台，例如仿生材料和纳米医学。受肌动蛋白束状纤维结构的启发，我们通过充分利用弱非共价键和强共价交联的半柔性静电纺纤维网，开发了一种坚固且超快的热响应纤维水凝胶（TFH）。TFH 表现出超快的响应（在 10 秒内）、快速的自恢复率（在 10 秒内 74%）、可调节的拉伸强度（3-380 kPa）和高韧性（约 1560 J/m）对温度的响应。多尺度取向被认为在纤维网、纤维和分子尺度上的优异机械性能中起着关键作用。此外，为了充分利用这种 TFH，我们基于 TFH 制备了一种新型的基于 TFH 的面条状水凝胶，用于温控蛋白质吸附，该水凝胶具有高稳定性和超快的吸附性能。这种仿生平台有望成为人工皮肤和“智能”吸附膜载体，为组织工程和纳米医学提供独特的生物活性环境。
