A new design strategy to produce a supramolecular elastomer with self‐healing and dielectric properties by synthesizing an aniline tetramer (AT)‐functionalized supramolecular elastomer (SE‐AT) is demonstrated. The termination of AT in the supramolecular system not only shortens linear amide molecular chain to decrease glass transition temperature but also destroys the crystallization to achieve amorphous structure. The SE‐AT provides two kinds of noncovalent bonding including π–π stacking and the hydrogen bond, which makes the material more easily healed. The SE‐AT20% can heal mechanical properties within 24 h at room temperature without any external stimulus. The dielectric constant shows a continuous increase overall with increasing AT content. The material exhibits good electro‐mechanical properties, which is attributed to a simultaneous increase in dielectric constant and decrease in modulus. The maximum actuated strain significantly increases with the increasing AT content and the SE‐AT20% reaches 10% at 1 V µm−1. Moreover, SE‐AT exhibits the ability to regain actuated strain on the location of the mechanical damage after self‐healing.
Stimulating cell proliferation is a challenge in the field of silk fibroin-based biomaterials. In this study, silk fibroin/hyaluronic acid blend films were prepared by a casting method using carbodiimide as a cross-linking agent. Carbodiimide induced silk fibroin to form Silk I crystal structure which was not affected by the presence of hyaluronic acid. The films showed high water resistance. In vitro, the performance of these films was assessed by seeding L929 cells. The results indicated that the silk fibroin/hyaluronic acid blend films with the blend ratio of 80/20 and 60/40 promoted cell proliferation compared with the pure silk fibroin or hyaluronic acid film. These results suggest that silk fibroin/hyaluronic acid blend films are water stable and cytocompatible materials which are expected to be useful in biomedical applications.
In this work, Antheraea pernyi silk fibroin (ASF) /chitosan (CS) blend scaffolds were prepared by freeze-drying. The relationship between preparation conditions and morphological structures of blend scaffolds was also studied. The results indicated that the porosity and pore diameter of the ASF /CS scaffolds decreased with increasing of the proportion of chitosan and decreasing of the freezing temperature. By changing the process conditions, the average pore diameter and porosity of ASF/CS scaffolds could be adjusted in the range of 134 - 527 μm and 71 - 91% respectively. Compared with the pure ASF or CS materials, the ASF / CS (60/40) blend materials were more favor of cell adhesion.
The Bombyx mori silk fibroin gel with three dimensional structures is an important form to be developed for tissue engineering materials. In this paper, silk fibroin gels were prepared with adding polyalcohol into silk fibroin solution. The gel structure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that when adding more than 100% of polyalcohol, both of glycerol and polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG400) can accelerate the gelation process markedly. With the increase of the percentage of PEG400 and glycerol, it promoted silk fibroin molecules to cluster rapidly and inhibit silk fibroin molecules transforming from the random coil or α-helix to β-sheet in a ratio of 900% especially. Silk fibroin gels containing 100% of polyalcohol had more uniform morphology and the pores distributed uniformly.
As the tissue engineering scaffolds, the pore structure and condensed structure of silk fibroin scaffolds should be adjusted and controlled. In this study, Antheraea pernyi/Bombyx mori (A. p/B. m) silk fibroin blend scaffolds were prepared by freeze-drying. The influence of blend ratios on the pore structure and condensed structure of the scaffolds was investigated. The results showed that the average pore diameter of the blend scaffolds changed from 56 to 326 μm. Due to the difference of properties and the macromolecules aggregation status of two silk fibroin solutions, the pore diameter, content of α-helix and crystallinity of the scaffolds decreased with the increasing of the proportion of B. m silk fibroin. By adjusting the blend ratios, the pore structure and condensed structure of A. p/B. m silk fibroin blend scaffolds could be controlled.
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