Hierarchical Mechanical Transduction of Precision-Engineered DNA Hydrogels with Sacrificial Bonds

Engineering the response to external signals in mechanically switchable hydrogels is important to promote smart materials applications. However, comparably little attention has focused on embedded precision mechanisms for autonomous nonlinear response in mechanical profiles in hydrogels, and we lack...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS applied materials & interfaces 2023-12, Vol.15 (51), p.59714-59721
Main Authors: Lallemang, Max, Akintayo, Cecilia Oluwadunsin, Wenzel, Christiane, Chen, Weixiang, Sielaff, Lucca, Ripp, Alexander, Jessen, Henning J., Balzer, Bizan N., Walther, Andreas, Hugel, Thorsten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
DNA - chemistry
Functional Nanostructured Materials (including low-D carbon)
Hydrogels - chemistry
Mechanical Phenomena
Smart Materials
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Engineering the response to external signals in mechanically switchable hydrogels is important to promote smart materials applications. However, comparably little attention has focused on embedded precision mechanisms for autonomous nonlinear response in mechanical profiles in hydrogels, and we lack understanding of how the behavior from the molecular scale transduces to the macroscale. Here, we design a nonlinear stress–strain response into hydrogels by engineering sacrificial DNA hairpin loops into model network hydrogels formed from star-shaped building blocks. We characterize the force–extension response of single DNA hairpins and are able to describe how the specific topology influences the nonlinear mechanical behavior at different length scales. For this purpose, we utilize force spectroscopy as well as microscopic and macroscopic deformation tests. This study contributes to a better understanding of designing nonlinear strain-adaptive features into hydrogel materials.
ISSN:1944-8244
1944-8252
DOI:10.1021/acsami.3c15135