IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-48745-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spider-silk-inspired strong and tough hydrogel fibers with anti-freezing and water retention properties

Author

Listed:
  • Shaoji Wu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Zhao Liu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Caihong Gong

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Wanjiang Li

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Sijia Xu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Rui Wen

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Wen Feng

    (Guangdong Medical Products Administration Key Laboratory for Quality Research and Evaluation of Medical Textile Products)

  • Zhiming Qiu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Yurong Yan

    (South China University of Technology
    Key Lab of Guangdong High Property & Functional Polymer Materials)

Abstract

Ideal hydrogel fibers with high toughness and environmental tolerance are indispensable for their long-term application in flexible electronics as actuating and sensing elements. However, current hydrogel fibers exhibit poor mechanical properties and environmental instability due to their intrinsically weak molecular (chain) interactions. Inspired by the multilevel adjustment of spider silk network structure by ions, bionic hydrogel fibers with elaborated ionic crosslinking and crystalline domains are constructed. Bionic hydrogel fibers show a toughness of 162.25 ± 21.99 megajoules per cubic meter, comparable to that of spider silks. The demonstrated bionic structural engineering strategy can be generalized to other polymers and inorganic salts for fabricating hydrogel fibers with broadly tunable mechanical properties. In addition, the introduction of inorganic salt/glycerol/water ternary solvent during constructing bionic structures endows hydrogel fibers with anti-freezing, water retention, and self-regeneration properties. This work provides ideas to fabricate hydrogel fibers with high mechanical properties and stability for flexible electronics.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaoji Wu & Zhao Liu & Caihong Gong & Wanjiang Li & Sijia Xu & Rui Wen & Wen Feng & Zhiming Qiu & Yurong Yan, 2024. "Spider-silk-inspired strong and tough hydrogel fibers with anti-freezing and water retention properties," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-48745-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48745-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48745-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-48745-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mutian Hua & Shuwang Wu & Yanfei Ma & Yusen Zhao & Zilin Chen & Imri Frenkel & Joseph Strzalka & Hua Zhou & Xinyuan Zhu & Ximin He, 2021. "Strong tough hydrogels via the synergy of freeze-casting and salting out," Nature, Nature, vol. 590(7847), pages 594-599, February.
    2. Yan Zhang & Yafei Wang & Ying Guan & Yongjun Zhang, 2022. "Peptide-enhanced tough, resilient and adhesive eutectogels for highly reliable strain/pressure sensing under extreme conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Xue Zhao & Fang Chen & Yuanheng Li & Han Lu & Ning Zhang & Mingming Ma, 2018. "Bioinspired ultra-stretchable and anti-freezing conductive hydrogel fibers with ordered and reversible polymer chain alignment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Hainan Gao & Ziguang Zhao & Yudong Cai & Jiajia Zhou & Wenda Hua & Lie Chen & Li Wang & Jianqi Zhang & Dong Han & Mingjie Liu & Lei Jiang, 2017. "Adaptive and freeze-tolerant heteronetwork organohydrogels with enhanced mechanical stability over a wide temperature range," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wenqian He & Meilin Wang & Guangkai Mei & Shiyong Liu & Abdul Qadeer Khan & Chao Li & Danyang Feng & Zihao Su & Lili Bao & Ge Wang & Enzhao Liu & Yutian Zhu & Jie Bai & Meifang Zhu & Xiang Zhou & Zunf, 2024. "Establishing superfine nanofibrils for robust polyelectrolyte artificial spider silk and powerful artificial muscles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Xiansheng Zhang & Hongwei Yan & Chongzhi Xu & Xia Dong & Yu Wang & Aiping Fu & Hao Li & Jin Yong Lee & Sheng Zhang & Jiahua Ni & Min Gao & Jing Wang & Jinpeng Yu & Shuzhi Sam Ge & Ming Liang Jin & Lil, 2023. "Skin-like cryogel electronics from suppressed-freezing tuned polymer amorphization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Feipeng Chen & Xiufeng Li & Yafeng Yu & Qingchuan Li & Haisong Lin & Lizhi Xu & Ho Cheung Shum, 2023. "Phase-separation facilitated one-step fabrication of multiscale heterogeneous two-aqueous-phase gel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Ruixin Zhu & Dandan Zhu & Zhen Zheng & Xinling Wang, 2024. "Tough double network hydrogels with rapid self-reinforcement and low hysteresis based on highly entangled networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Dan Xu & Yang Yang & Lukas Emmerich & Yong Wang & Kai Zhang, 2023. "Divergent Deborah number-dependent transition from homogeneity to heterogeneity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Won Bae Han & Gwan-Jin Ko & Kang-Gon Lee & Donghak Kim & Joong Hoon Lee & Seung Min Yang & Dong-Je Kim & Jeong-Woong Shin & Tae-Min Jang & Sungkeun Han & Honglei Zhou & Heeseok Kang & Jun Hyeon Lim & , 2023. "Ultra-stretchable and biodegradable elastomers for soft, transient electronics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Haojie Lu & Yong Zhang & Mengjia Zhu & Shuo Li & Huarun Liang & Peng Bi & Shuai Wang & Haomin Wang & Linli Gan & Xun-En Wu & Yingying Zhang, 2024. "Intelligent perceptual textiles based on ionic-conductive and strong silk fibers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Siheng Wang & Le Yu & Shanshan Wang & Lei Zhang & Lu Chen & Xu Xu & Zhanqian Song & He Liu & Chaoji Chen, 2022. "Strong, tough, ionic conductive, and freezing-tolerant all-natural hydrogel enabled by cellulose-bentonite coordination interactions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Bin Xue & Zoobia Bashir & Yachong Guo & Wenting Yu & Wenxu Sun & Yiran Li & Yiyang Zhang & Meng Qin & Wei Wang & Yi Cao, 2023. "Strong, tough, rapid-recovery, and fatigue-resistant hydrogels made of picot peptide fibres," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Chengkun Zhao & Xing Li & Xiaowen Han & Zhulian Li & Shaoquan Bian & Weinan Zeng & Mingming Ding & Jie Liang & Qing Jiang & Zongke Zhou & Yujiang Fan & Xingdong Zhang & Yong Sun, 2024. "Molecular co-assembled strategy tuning protein conformation for cartilage regeneration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Quyang Liu & Xinyu Dong & Haobo Qi & Haoqi Zhang & Tian Li & Yijing Zhao & Guanjin Li & Wei Zhai, 2024. "3D printable strong and tough composite organo-hydrogels inspired by natural hierarchical composite design principles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Jirong Yang & Zhigang Chen & Chongjian Gao & Juan Liu & Kaizheng Liu & Xiao Wang & Xiaoling Pan & Guocheng Wang & Hongxun Sang & Haobo Pan & Wenguang Liu & Changshun Ruan, 2024. "A mechanical-assisted post-bioprinting strategy for challenging bone defects repair," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    13. Donghwan Ji & Joseph Liu & Jiayu Zhao & Minghao Li & Yumi Rho & Hwansoo Shin & Tae Hee Han & Jinhye Bae, 2024. "Sustainable 3D printing by reversible salting-out effects with aqueous salt solutions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Yong Hu & Jennifer L. Gottfried & Rose Pesce-Rodriguez & Chi-Chin Wu & Scott D. Walck & Zhiyu Liu & Sangeeth Balakrishnan & Scott Broderick & Zipeng Guo & Qiang Zhang & Lu An & Revant Adlakha & Mostaf, 2022. "Releasing chemical energy in spatially programmed ferroelectrics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    15. Jiqiang Wang & Baohu Wu & Peng Wei & Shengtong Sun & Peiyi Wu, 2022. "Fatigue-free artificial ionic skin toughened by self-healable elastic nanomesh," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Shuihong Zhu & Sen Wang & Yifan Huang & Qiyun Tang & Tianqi Fu & Riyan Su & Chaoyu Fan & Shuang Xia & Pooi See Lee & Youhui Lin, 2024. "Bioinspired structural hydrogels with highly ordered hierarchical orientations by flow-induced alignment of nanofibrils," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Yingkun Shi & Baohu Wu & Shengtong Sun & Peiyi Wu, 2023. "Aqueous spinning of robust, self-healable, and crack-resistant hydrogel microfibers enabled by hydrogen bond nanoconfinement," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Tianshen Jiang & Sirong Chen & Jingwen Xu & Yuxiao Zhang & Hao Fu & Qiangjun Ling & Yan Xu & Xiangyu Chu & Ruinan Wang & Liangcong Hu & Hao Li & Weitong Huang & Liming Bian & Pengchao Zhao & Fuxin Wei, 2024. "Superporous sponge prepared by secondary network compaction with enhanced permeability and mechanical properties for non-compressible hemostasis in pigs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    19. Huang, Mingkun & Long, Kaixiang & Luo, Yuecong & Li, Jingxing & Su, Cuicui & Gao, Xiangming & Guo, Shishang, 2024. "Self-charging power module for multidirectional ultra-low frequency mechanical vibration monitoring and energy harvesting," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    20. Jingjun Wu & Jing Guo & Changhong Linghu & Yahui Lu & Jizhou Song & Tao Xie & Qian Zhao, 2021. "Rapid digital light 3D printing enabled by a soft and deformable hydrogel separation interface," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-48745-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.