Mechanical characterization of spider silk inspired peptide-containing hybrids

作者：Gu, Lin; Jiang, Yuanzhang; Chow, Larry M. C.; Liu, Zhen; Gao, Wei; Han, Yanting; Wang, Cong; Hu, Jinlian^*

来源：MATERIALS & DESIGN, 2022, 219: 110761.

DOI：10.1016/j.matdes.2022.110761

• Polyurethane/urea
• Spider silk inspired
• Shape recovery
• Electric resistance stability

Spiders can produce different types of silks with different functions by tuning the hierarchical structure of spidroin. Inspired by the secondary structure of spider silk, a series of peptide-polyurethane/urea (PUU) hybrids with various peptide contents were synthesized in this work. By effective control of polymerization degree, simultaneous presence of alpha-helixes and beta-sheets in the polymer was realized. The modulus of films increased with peptide loading and reached more than 200 MPa at 71.1% peptide content. Notably, the PUU hybrid with 41.5% peptide content (P-41.5) showed the highest tensile strength (6.6 MPa) and strain (1238%). At the same time, this film (P-41.5) exhibited shape memory effect at 37 ?, as well as excellent shape recovery ratio during successive cycles at 100% strain. Furthermore, Ag nanowires/P-41.5 hybrid film exhibited superb electric resistance stability under bending and stretching conditions, making it a promising material for strain sensors.

• 单位
  四川大学; 中山大学