Center for Soft Nanoscience and Organic Chemistry Institute, Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, Busso Peus Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.
Soft Matter. 2021 Mar 18;17(10):2857-2864. doi: 10.1039/d0sm02049d.
Hydrogels that respond to non-invasive, external stimuli such as a magnetic field are of exceptional interest for the development of adaptive soft materials. To date magneto tuneable gels are predominantly based on macromolecular building blocks, while comparable low molecular weight systems are rarely found in the literature. Herein, we report a highly efficient peptide-based gelator (Nap GFYE), which can form hydrogels and incorporate Fe3O4 superparamagnetic nanoparticles in the gel matrix. The magnetic nanoparticles act as a physical crosslinker for the self-assembled peptide nanostructures and thus give rise to a fortified hybrid gel with distinctively improved mechanical properties. Furthermore, the particles provide the material with magnetic susceptibility and a gel to sol transition is observed upon application of a weak magnetic field. Magnetization of the inorganic-organic hybrid nanomaterial leads to on-demand release of an incorporated fluorescent dye into the supernatant.
水凝胶对非侵入性、外部刺激（如磁场）的响应对于自适应软材料的发展非常有意义。迄今为止，可调磁水凝胶主要基于高分子构建模块，而在文献中很少发现可比的低分子量体系。在此，我们报告了一种高效的基于肽的凝胶剂（Nap GFYE），它可以形成水凝胶并将 Fe3O4 超顺磁纳米粒子掺入凝胶基质中。磁性纳米粒子充当自组装肽纳米结构的物理交联剂，从而产生具有明显改善的机械性能的强化杂化凝胶。此外，这些粒子使材料具有磁导率，并且在施加弱磁场时观察到凝胶到溶胶的转变。无机-有机杂化纳米材料的磁化导致所包含的荧光染料按需释放到上清液中。
