Improving the polymer toughness of synthetic hagfish slime

Abstract

Hagfish slime have unique properties such as rapid gelation, high toughness and strain that serves as an effective deterrence against its predator. These unique properties are due to the interaction between protein threads and mucin components found in its slime. As such, it has generated research interest for biomimetic soft polymers. Biomimetic hagfish slime was developed by crosslinking zwitterionic polymer and polyethylene glycol diacrylate. To further improve the properties of the hydrogel, biopolymers such as silk fibroin, sodium alginate and carboxymethylcellulose was used as natural additives. These biopolymers has been extensively studied to strengthen soft hydrogels. Synthetic additives such as vinylpyrrolidone, vinylimidazole, acrylamide and RhinohideTM was also explored due to its highly hygroscopic nature and ability to form ionic and metal coordination bonds which can improve the toughness of soft hydrogels.