Liquid metal-tailored gluten network for protein-based e-skin

Bin Chen, Yudong Cao, Qiaoyu Li, Zhuo Yan, Rui Liu, Yunjiao Zhao, Xiang Zhang, Minying Wu, Yixiu Qin, Chang Sun, Wei Yao, Ziyi Cao, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Mason Oliver Lam Chee, Pei Dong, Zhaofen Li, Jianfeng Shen () and Mingxin Ye ()
Additional contact information
Bin Chen: Fudan University
Yudong Cao: Fudan University
Qiaoyu Li: Fudan University
Zhuo Yan: Fudan University
Rui Liu: Tianjin University of Science & Technology
Yunjiao Zhao: Tianjin University of Science & Technology
Xiang Zhang: Rice University
Minying Wu: Fudan University
Yixiu Qin: Fudan University
Chang Sun: Fudan University
Wei Yao: Fudan University
Ziyi Cao: Fudan University
Pulickel M. Ajayan: Rice University
Mason Oliver Lam Chee: George Mason University
Pei Dong: George Mason University
Zhaofen Li: RENISHAW (Shanghai) Trading CO.LTD, SPD
Jianfeng Shen: Fudan University
Mingxin Ye: Fudan University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Designing electronic skin (e-skin) with proteins is a critical way to endow e-skin with biocompatibility, but engineering protein structures to achieve controllable mechanical properties and self-healing ability remains a challenge. Here, we develop a hybrid gluten network through the incorporation of a eutectic gallium indium alloy (EGaIn) to design a self-healable e-skin with improved mechanical properties. The intrinsic reversible disulfide bond/sulfhydryl group reconfiguration of gluten networks is explored as a driving force to introduce EGaIn as a chemical cross-linker, thus inducing secondary structure rearrangement of gluten to form additional β-sheets as physical cross-linkers. Remarkably, the obtained gluten-based material is self-healing, achieves synthetic material-like stretchability (>1600%) and possesses the ability to promote skin cell proliferation. The final e-skin is biocompatible and biodegradable and can sense strain changes from human motions of different scales. The protein network microregulation method paves the way for future skin-like protein-based e-skin.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28901-9

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