Abstract Fabricating a hydrogel with high strength and toughness is still a challenge in many fields. Here, we prepared gliadin-based hydrogels by chemical cross-linking gliadin in acetic acid solution (GS) with glutaraldehyde (GA). Subsequently, the overall properties of the fabricated hydrogels were systematically investigated in terms of their mechanical properties, swelling ratio, weight loss, thermal stability, and the chemical/physical interactions in hydrogels. Results showed that the gliadin-based chemically cross-linked hydrogels exhibited excellent mechanical properties. The optimized hydrogel exhibited the compressive stress of 1.8 MPa at a strain of 70%, and an excellent self-recovery property after 30 cycles of loading-unloading treatments. The strength and toughness of the hydrogels could be tailored by adjusting the ratio of GS/GA. The chemical cross-linking (aldehyde-ammonia reaction) was the main molecular interaction in the hydrogels, including single-/multi-site crosslinking, and the hydrogen bond was the only physical cross-linking in the hydrogels. Moreover, the swelling ratio of the fabricated hydrogels performed a concentration negative-dependency in GA or GS concentration. And a higher GS concentration (40%) with an appropriate GA content (3.0%) could resist the degradation of hydrogels. In addition, the thermodynamic properties of hydrogels also improved by the GA addition. Overall, these findings suggested that gliadin can be applied for fabricating hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties, which will unlock the high-utilization of gliadin as biopolymer and biocompatible materials.

中文翻译：

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高强韧性小麦醇溶蛋白水凝胶的制备与表征

摘要 制备具有高强度和韧性的水凝胶仍然是许多领域的挑战。在这里，我们通过将醋酸溶液 (GS) 中的麦胶蛋白与戊二醛 (GA) 化学交联来制备基于麦胶蛋白的水凝胶。随后，系统研究了制备的水凝胶的整体性能，包括机械性能、溶胀比、重量损失、热稳定性和水凝胶中的化学/物理相互作用。结果表明，基于麦醇溶蛋白的化学交联水凝胶表现出优异的机械性能。优化后的水凝胶在 70% 的应变下表现出 1.8 MPa 的压应力，并且在 30 次加载-卸载循环后表现出优异的自恢复性能。水凝胶的强度和韧性可以通过调整 GS/GA 的比例来调整。化学交联（醛-氨反应）是水凝胶中主要的分子相互作用，包括单/多位点交联，氢键是水凝胶中唯一的物理交联。此外，制备的水凝胶的溶胀率在 GA 或 GS​​ 浓度中呈浓度负依赖性。较高的 GS 浓度 (40%) 和适当的 GA 含量 (3.0%) 可以抵抗水凝胶的降解。此外，水凝胶的热力学性质也因 GA 的加入而得到改善。总体而言，这些发现表明麦醇溶蛋白可用于制造具有可调机械性能的水凝胶，这将开启麦醇溶蛋白作为生物聚合物和生物相容性材料的高利用率。