Bio-inspired self-healing structural color hydrogel

Abstract

Biologically inspired self-healing structural color hydrogels were developed by adding a glucose oxidase (GOX)- and catalase (CAT)-filled glutaraldehyde cross-linked BSA hydrogel into methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) inverse opal scaffolds. The composite hydrogel materials with the polymerized GelMA scaffold could maintain the stability of an inverse opal structure and its resultant structural colors, whereas the protein hydrogel filler could impart self-healing capability through the reversible covalent attachment of glutaraldehyde to lysine residues of BSA and enzyme additives. A series of unprecedented structural color materials could be created by assembling and healing the elements of the composite hydrogel. In addition, as both the GelMA and the protein hydrogels were derived from organisms, the composite materials presented high biocompatibility and plasticity. These features of self-healing structural color hydrogels make them excellent functional materials for different applications.

Bioinspired Nanocomposite Hydrogels with Highly Ordered Structures

“…[101,102] Meanwhile, such periodically ordered colloidal particles can also act as removable templates so that ordered macroporous structures of hydrogels can be constructed (Figure 7a). [103][104][105][106][107][108][109] The size of the macropores can be easily controlled by tuning the diameter of the colloidal particle templates. Because of the features of the ordered porous structures, macroporous hydrogels hold immense promise as a unique platform for application for tissue-engineering scaffolds and sensors.…”

“…[109,[127][128][129][130][131][132] By mimicking the structure of colorful tropical fishes, Gong and co-workers fabricated several kinds of hydrogels with well-ordered structures to promote a new generation of sensors. [129][130][131][132] In their work, amphiphilic monomers self-assemble into bilayer structures that can be ordered in one direction (parallel to the substrate surface under shear flow conditions) and then periodically stacked to form lamellar liquid crystals in water.…”

Responsive Porous Microcarriers With Controllable Oxygen Delivery for Wound Healing

“…Also, the porous structure and complex channels are also conducive to cell adhesion and substance exchange. Moreover, the specific structural color of these particles endows them with the characteristics to be monitored and observed conveniently . Therefore, it is conceivable to combine the MoS 2 with inverse opals to realize controllable oxygen release and apply them in tissue engineering, which has never been investigated in previous study.…”

Self‐Healable Organogel Nanocomposite with Angle‐Independent Structural Colors

“…[8] However,am ajor issue for all photonic materials is the large amount of structural defects either associated with the fabrication procedures [9] or generated by mechanical damage during their applications,which will lower the quality of light reflection and largely shorten the lifespan of the corresponding optical devices.Despite the fact that defect-free photonic structures could be prepared through well designed manufacturing or assembly procedures, [10,11] the recovery or partially restoration of functions from mechanical damages has been rarely achieved. [16] In this regard, it is in great demand to develop photonic materials which can offer repeatable and reliable self-healing ability and high-quality structural colors simultaneously,f acilitating their real-world applications on color-related optical devices.…”

“…[12] Thed esign strategy of developing self-healable supramolecular nanocomposites as well as functional devices has already been successfully achieved in an umber of applications,i ncluding flexible electronics, [13] artificial skins, [14] and supercapacitors. [16] Such self-healable hydrogel showed excellent biocompatibility and thus great potential in tissue engineering.H owever,t he time scale on the reversible covalent binding restricts the self-healing ability and the hydrophilic nature of the hydrogel limits their outdoor applications.F urthermore,t he template-based method is difficult for large scale fabrication. [16] Such self-healable hydrogel showed excellent biocompatibility and thus great potential in tissue engineering.H owever,t he time scale on the reversible covalent binding restricts the self-healing ability and the hydrophilic nature of the hydrogel limits their outdoor applications.F urthermore,t he template-based method is difficult for large scale fabrication.…”