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Highly Stretchable and Tough Physical Silk Fibroin–Based Double Network Hydrogels
Author(s) -
Zhao Yu,
Guan Juan,
Wu Su Jun
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201900389
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , fibroin , materials science , ultimate tensile strength , polymer , biocompatibility , composite material , swelling , silk , chemical engineering , polymer science , polymer chemistry , metallurgy , engineering
Regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) is a promising biomedical material, but the poor mechanical properties of RSF hydrogels may hinder the use as structural components. Herein, an equilibrium RSF hydrogel is prepared and optimized based on the double network (DN) concept. After sufficient soaking in water and removal of small molecules, the equilibrium RSF DN hydrogels prove stable in water, strong, highly extensible, and tough with 0.26–0.44 MPa tensile strength, 500–900% elongation, and 2 MJ m −3 work of extension. The combination of high strength and extensibility is attributed to the homogeneous morphology and the hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding between the two networks. The strategy in this work overcomes the previous issue of swelling and eventual fracture of as‐prepared RSF/SDS DN hydrogels in water. In addition, such mechanically superior RSF DN hydrogels also display low cytotoxicity. It concludes that the elastic and tough RSF DN hydrogels could be engineered by introducing widely used polymer networks, and the hydrogels from inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and biocompatible silk fibroin may hold great potential in biomedical applications.