Electrofabrication of large volume di- and tripeptide hydrogels via hydroquinone oxidation

Patterson, C., Dietrich, B. , Wilson, C. , Mount, A. R. and Adams, D. J. (2022) Electrofabrication of large volume di- and tripeptide hydrogels via hydroquinone oxidation. Soft Matter, 18(5), pp. 1064-1070. (doi: 10.1039/D1SM01626A) (PMID:35022641)

Abstract

The fabrication of protected peptide-based hydrogels on electrode surfaces can be achieved by employing the electrochemical oxidation of hydroquinone to benzoquinone, liberating protons at the electrode-solution interface. The localised reduction in pH below the dipeptide gelator molecules pKa initiates the neutralisation, self-assembly and formation of self-supporting hydrogels exclusively at the electrode surface. Previous examples have been on a nanometre to millimetre scale, using deposition times ranging from seconds to minutes. However, the maximum size to which these materials can grow and their subsequent mechanical properties have not yet been investigated. Here, we report the fabrication of the largest reported di- and tri-peptide based hydrogels using this electrochemical method, employing deposition times of two to five hours. To overcome the oxidation of hydroquinone in air, the fabrication process was performed under an inert nitrogen atmosphere. We show that this approach can be used to form multilayer gels, with the mechanical properties of each layer determined by gelator composition. We also describe examples were gel-to-crystal transitions and syneresis occurs within the material.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wilson, Dr Claire and Dietrich, Bart and Adams, Dave and Patterson, Miss Courtenay

Creator Roles

Patterson, C.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Dietrich, B.: Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Wilson, C.: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Adams, D. J.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Patterson, C., Dietrich, B., Wilson, C., Mount, A. R., and Adams, D. J.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
• Journal Name: Soft Matter
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• ISSN: 1744-683X
• ISSN (Online): 1744-6848
• Published Online: 03 January 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Royal Society of Chemistry
• First Published: First published in Soft Matter 18(5): 1064-1070
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
305912		Spatially- and temporally-controlled photothermal Gels	Dave Adams	Leverhulme Trust (LEVERHUL)	RPG-2019-165	Chemistry