In situ mechanical reinforcement of polymer hydrogels via metal-coordinated crosslink mineralization

Sungjin Kim, Abigail U. Regitsky, Jake Song, Jan Ilavsky, Gareth H. McKinley and Niels Holten-Andersen ()
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Sungjin Kim: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abigail U. Regitsky: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jake Song: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jan Ilavsky: Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory
Gareth H. McKinley: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Niels Holten-Andersen: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Biological organic-inorganic materials remain a popular source of inspiration for bioinspired materials design and engineering. Inspired by the self-assembling metal-reinforced mussel holdfast threads, we tested if metal-coordinate polymer networks can be utilized as simple composite scaffolds for direct in situ crosslink mineralization. Starting with aqueous solutions of polymers end-functionalized with metal-coordinating ligands of catechol or histidine, here we show that inter-molecular metal-ion coordination complexes can serve as mineral nucleation sites, whereby significant mechanical reinforcement is achieved upon nanoscale particle growth directly at the metal-coordinate network crosslink sites.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20953-7

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