ABSTRACT

Gelatin hydrogel has been widely applied in bio-applications due to their good biocompatibility and high water content. However, poor mechanical properties of gelatin hydrogel greatly limit their application. Here we present a facile one-step soaking method to fabricate a recoverable gelatin hydrogel with high mechanical property, which is based on hydrogen bonds and metal ionic interaction. The mechanical properties of gelatin hydrogels can be tuned with different metal ions, temperatures and soaking times. Especially, gelatin-Fe³⁺ hydrogel can reach to 65 MPa compression stress with the compressive strain over 99% and possess good fatigue resistance under cyclic loadings. Besides, hydrogels crosslinked with metal ions show better antibacterial ability against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This work suggested an alternative for the design of tough gelatin-based hydrogels with desirable properties, which may hold promising for potential bio-applications under physiological conditions.

摘要

明胶水凝胶因其良好的生物相容性和高水含量而被广泛应用于生物应用。但是，明胶水凝胶的较差的机械性能极大地限制了它们的应用。在这里，我们提出一种简便的一步浸泡方法来制造具有高机械性能的可回收明胶水凝胶，该凝胶基于氢键和金属离子相互作用。明胶水凝胶的机械性能可以根据不同的金属离子，温度和浸泡时间进行调整。特别是明胶-Fe ³⁺水凝胶可达到65 MPa的压缩应力，压缩应变超过99％，并且在循环载荷下具有良好的抗疲劳性。此外，与金属离子交联的水凝胶对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌具有更好的抗菌能力。这项工作为设计具有理想特性的坚硬明胶基水凝胶提供了另一种选择，这对于在生理条件下潜在的生物应用可能具有广阔的前景。