A Self-Healing, All-Organic, Conducting, Composite Peptide Hydrogel as Pressure Sensor and Electrogenic Cell Soft Substrate
A Self-Healing, All-Organic, Conducting, Composite Peptide Hydrogel as Pressure Sensor and Electrogenic Cell Soft Substrate
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DOI：
10.1021/acsnano.8b05067
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发表时间：
2019-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
17.1
通讯作者：
Gazit, Ehud
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chakraborty, Priyadarshi;Guterman, Tom;Gazit, Ehud
导电聚合物水凝胶将导电聚合物的优点与水凝胶的力学性能和连续的三维纳米结构有机地结合在一起，成为一种优良的功能材料。这种双组分结构产生了柔软的、全有机的、具有多种材料应用的导电微/纳米结构。然而，由于需要结合生物相容性、自愈性和力学性能的微调特性，目前CPH作为生物医学应用的功能材料的应用受到限制。为了解决这一问题，我们选择了一种受保护的二肽作为超分子凝胶剂，因为它具有内在的生物相容性和良好的胶凝能力，与原位聚合的导电聚合物聚苯胺(PANI)相结合。因此，形成了一种双组分、全有机、导电的水凝胶。光谱证据表明，通过本征掺杂形成了祖母绿盐形式的PANI。该复合水凝胶具有很高的储能弹性(G‘)值，接近2 Mpa，且刚性可通过改变多肽浓度来调节。这种水凝胶具有欧姆导电性、压力敏感性，更重要的是，它还具有自我修复功能。由于其自愈性，当宏观上分离的两个块重新连接时，聚合物非金属水凝胶可以恢复其本征电导率。在复合水凝胶上生长的心肌细胞具有较高的细胞存活率，表明其无细胞毒性。水凝胶的这些组合属性允许将其用于动态范围压力传感和作为产生电的心脏细胞的导电界面。该复合水凝胶支持心肌细胞组织成自发收缩系统。因此，该复合水凝胶具有相当大的应用潜力。
Conducting polymer hydrogels (CPHs) emerge as excellent functional materials, as they harness the advantages of conducting polymers with the mechanical properties and continuous 3D nanostructures of hydrogels. This bicomponent organization results in soft, all-organic, conducting micro-/nanostructures with multifarious material applications. However, the application of CPHs as functional materials for biomedical applications is currently limited due to the necessity to combine the features of biocompatibility, self-healing, and fine-tuning of the mechanical properties. To overcome this issue, we choose to combine a protected dipeptide as the supramolecular gelator, owing to its intrinsic biocompatibility and excellent gelation ability, with the conductive polymer polyaniline (PAni), which was polymerized in situ. Thus, a two-component, all-organic, conducting hydrogel was formed. Spectroscopic evidence reveals the formation of the emeraldine salt form of PAni by intrinsic doping. The composite hydrogel is mechanically rigid with a very high storage modulus (G') value of similar to 2 MPa, and the rigidity was tuned by changing the peptide concentration. The hydrogel exhibits ohmic conductivity, pressure sensitivity, and, importantly, self-healing features. By virtue of its self-healing property, the polymeric nonmetallic hydrogel can reinstate its intrinsic conductivity when two of its macroscopically separated blocks are rejoined. High cell viability of cardiomyocytes grown on the composite hydrogel demonstrates its noncytotoxicity. These combined attributes of the hydrogel allowed its utilization for dynamic range pressure sensing and as a conductive interface for electrogenic cardiac cells. The composite hydrogel supports cardiomyocyte organization into a spontaneously contracting system. The composite hydrogel thus has considerable potential for various applications.