Jellyfish gel and its hybrid hydrogels with high mechanical strength

Wang, Xuezhen; Wang, Huiliang; Brown, Hugh R.

doi:10.1039/c0sm00632g

Cited by 85 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The microstructure of the hybrid gels is thought to be important for their mechanical properties. The hybrid hydrogels have a structure similar to that of jellyfish (JF) gel proposed by Wang et al (2011b) in that the two networks are entangled and grafted together. In the hybrid hydrogels, the chitin hydrogel acts as the first network and may be a template for the formation of the GO network, which is confined to the interspaces between the porous layers, as evidenced by the SEM investigations.…”

Section: Formation and Interaction Of Hydrogelsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Construction of chitin/graphene oxide hybrid hydrogels

et al. 2015

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Graphene oxide (GO), an excellent nanofiller, was incorporated into chitin to construct chitin/ GO hybrid hydrogels by cross-linking with epichlorohydrin. The structure of the hybrid hydrogels was investigated by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The results revealed that the hybrid hydrogels possessed a layered porous structure with bi-crosslinked networks, which played an important role in improving their mechanical properties. Compared with pure chitin hydrogels, an increase of 24.7 and 262.7 % in strain and compressive strength, respectively, was achieved with addition of 3.2 wt% GO. Incorporation of this amount of GO in a hybrid hydrogel did not affect the toxicity of chitin towards L02 cells, suggesting good biocompatibility. All these results suggest that chitin/ GO hydrogels have potential applications in the field of tissue engineering.

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Section: Formation and Interaction Of Hydrogelsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Construction of chitin/graphene oxide hybrid hydrogels

et al. 2015

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“…Gladfelter [7] has investigated the bell mesoglea of Polyorchis montereyensis as a rigid gel and the joint mesoglea as a much softer deformable gel that does not have viscoelastic properties. Demont and Gosline [8] found that intact jellyfish bell of the species Polyorchis penicillatus has a modulus between 400 and 1000 Pa. Megill et al [9] found the stiffness of Polyorchis penicillatus bell mesoglea to be 350 Pa in compression while the softer joint mesoglea had stiffness of 50 Pa. Wang et al investigated the mechanical properties of the jellyfish Rhopilema esculenta Kishinouye but did not report a single stiffness value [3]. Many of these prior studies indicate that the modulus of mesoglea varies over a wide range of magnitude.…”

Section: Natural Mesogleamentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, recently there has been increasing progress in hydrogels with higher mechanical strength and robustness [18]. Wang et al [3] have developed hybrid hydrogels based upon the mesoglea structure of the jellyfish Rhopilema esculenta Kishinouye but with the intent of achieving higher mechanical strength than other synthetic hydrogels. Hydrogels have been extensively evaluated by the medical field for their high fluid uptake, tunable stiffness and biocompatibility.…”

Section: Hydrogels As Candidate For Artificial Mesogleamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we have been making efforts towards understanding the dual role of mesoglea serving as both the structural and locomotor element. Mesoglea is a jelly-like substance comprised of long 20-50 nm diameter collagen fibers and a network of proteins and polysaccharides which span the space between the collagen fibers [3]. It is found in the taxa Cnidaria and Ctenophora but in this study we are primarily concerned with the jellyfish represented in the classes hydrozoa, scyphozoa, cubozoa, and staurozoa.…”

Section: Natural Mesogleamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Aurelia auritaInspired Artificial Mesoglea

Joshi

Villanueva

Smith

et al. 2013

Integrated Ferroelectrics

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In this preliminary study, we report the mechanical and dielectric properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-ferritin hydrogel. This material was found to exhibit close resemblance to Aurelia aurita (jellyfish) mesoglea in terms of stiffness modulus and water content. Systematic experiments were conducted on natural jellyfish to identify its compression modulus a function of deformation. In compressive testing Aurelia aurita mesoglea was found to exhibit nonlinear modulus in the range of −10 kPa to 70 kPa depending upon the compressive strain (0-50% strain). The negative stiffness is an artifact of tensile force experienced by the specimen at the beginning of the test due to surface tension. PVA hydrogels with 60% water to dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) ratio without ferritin particle (H60) and PVA hydrogels with 80% water to DMSO ratio with ferritin particle (F80) provided a good alternative to natural jellyfish mesoglea exhibiting shear modulus of 33.06 Pa and 39.99 Pa respectively as compared to 4.75 Pa for Aurelia aurita mesoglea. This is a significantly better match compared to the 1041.67 Pa shear modulus of Ecoflex, a soft polymer material commonly used in biomimetic robotics. A Mooney Rivlin model suggests that H60 and F80 compositions are about 6.9 times and 8.4 times stiffer than natural Aurelia aurtia mesoglea whereas Ecoflex is 219 times as stiff. Nanocomposite hydrogel consisting of PVA matrix and ferritin nanoparticles were found to exhibit higher durability over regular PVA hydrogels and had more consistent properties due to increased cross-linking at ferritin nanoparticle sites. The ferritin nanoparticles were found to act as springs, increasing the modulus by increasing the surface area of the cross-linked polymer chains and disrupting long linear chain patterns of the polymer. Natural Aurelia aurita was found to have water content of 96.3% with a standard deviation of 0.57% as compared to 85% water content of PVA-ferritin hydrogels. Use of this material in the design of biomimetic unmanned underwater vehicles is expected to reduce the power consumption, increase swimming efficiency, and better replicate the rowing kinematics of naturally occurring Aurelia aurita.

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“…UV-induced photopolymerization of monomer solution in the semi-frozen state has been proven to be feasible in making random [15] and aligned [16] porous hydrogels. Radiation-induced polymerization and crosslinking is a convenient and popular method to make hydrogels free of initiators and cross-linking agents [17,18], and more impressively, it has been proven to be feasible at low temperatures and for opaque systems [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%