Department of Material Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Nishikyo, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.
Department of Material Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Nishikyo, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 Sep 1;248:125904. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.125904. Epub 2023 Jul 21.
Effects of the gelation concentration (c) on cyclic deformation behavior of agarose hydrogels have been examined. Agarose hydrogels prepared at c = 10 g L (A10) show smaller Young's modulus than those prepared at c = 30 g L (A30) even when the mechanical properties have been measured at the same agarose concentration 50 g L. Moreover, A10 has stronger tendency to exhibit the residual strain in the cyclic deformation curves compared to A30. These results can be explained based on the gelation mechanism specific to agarose, where helices of agarose aggregate via hydrogen bonding to be the crosslinks. It has been proposed from the optical rotation that the helix content just after gelation increases with c, while the helix content for A10 was higher than that for A30 at 50 g L. Since the lower helix content at c for A10 results in less stable aggregates of agarose helices, it can be said that the cyclic deformation behavior as well as Young's modulus of agarose hydrogels primarily reflects the network structure determined by c.
凝胶浓度 (c) 对琼脂糖水凝胶的循环变形行为的影响进行了研究。即使在相同的琼脂糖浓度 50g/L 下测量力学性能，c=10g/L（A10）制备的琼脂糖水凝胶的杨氏模量小于 c=30g/L（A30）制备的水凝胶。此外，与 A30 相比，A10 在循环变形曲线中表现出残余应变的趋势更强。这些结果可以基于琼脂糖特有的凝胶化机制来解释，其中琼脂糖的螺旋通过氢键聚集形成交联。从旋光度来看，凝胶化后立即的螺旋含量随 c 增加，而在 50g/L 时 A10 的螺旋含量高于 A30。由于 A10 的 c 值较低，琼脂糖螺旋的聚集物稳定性较低，因此可以说琼脂糖水凝胶的循环变形行为和杨氏模量主要反映了由 c 决定的网络结构。
