Molecular Foundry Seminar

"Strong, Self-healing Supramolecular Hydrogels: Strength in Numbers,"

Dr. Justin Lee Mynar, Department of Chemistry, UC Berkeley,

Tuesday, June 8th at 1:30 pm, Bldg. 67-Room 3111

Abstract:

A huge environmental issue that has gained the attention of the scientific community is the reduction of our dependency on fossil-fuels for energy. Because conventional plastics are produced from petroleum products, there is significant interest in developing new class of materials with similar properties, but that can be synthesized without use of crude oil-based feedstocks.  The idea of replacing plastics with water-based materials, so-called hydrogels, could be one solution. Here, we report that water and clay (2–3 percent by mass), when mixed with a minute proportion (<0.4 percent by mass) of highly-tailored organic components, quickly form a transparent hydrogel. This material can be molded into shape-persistent, free-standing objects owing to its exceptional mechanical strength, and can also rapidly and completely self-heal when damaged. Further, these gels can encapsulate and preserve biologically-active proteins for catalysis. Surprisingly, this class of materials is formed only by non-covalent interactions that result from the specific design of a telechelic dendritic macromolecule with multiple adhesive termini for binding to clay. To date these supramolecular hydrogels surpass almost all other plastic and hydrogel materials in their ability to encompass material strength, damage induced self-healing, and biological compatibility within a single material.