This paper reports a versatile and dynamic hydrogel system based on ultrafast coordination between partially hydrogen-bonded (PHB) biopolymer hyaluronic acid and a series of transition metal ions at appropriate pH values. It was found that the procedure for the hydrogel synthesis was extremely facile, requiring a simple mixing of the components within 2 s. The hydrogels exhibited high water content, up to 96 %. Even so, the hydrogels can be stretched >50 times and rapidly self-heal from damage within only 10 s without using any healing agents or heating. Furthermore, this dynamic hydrogel network underwent reversible sol-gel transitions as response to multiple disparate stimuli, including pH, temperature, ions, redox, and light. The photo-patterning ability of the hydrogel with a rapid gel-sol transition upon exposure to light was also demonstrated. We disclosed the principle and methodology to use PHB metal-biopolymer systems for constructing dynamic bio-related soft matters.

本文报道了一种基于部分氢键 (PHB) 生物聚合物透明质酸和一系列过渡金属离子在适当 pH 值下的超快配位的多功能动态水凝胶系统。结果发现，水凝胶的合成过程非常简单，只需在 2 秒内简单混合各组分。水凝胶表现出高含水量，高达 96%。即便如此，水凝胶可以拉伸超过 50 倍，并在 10 秒内迅速从损伤中自我修复，而无需使用任何愈合剂或加热。此外，这种动态水凝胶网络经历了可逆的溶胶-凝胶转变，以响应多种不同的刺激，包括 pH 值、温度、离子、氧化还原和光。还展示了水凝胶在暴露于光时具有快速凝胶-溶胶转变的光图案化能力。我们揭示了使用 PHB 金属-生物聚合物系统构建动态生物相关软物质的原理和方法。