A 3D printable and highly stretchable tough hydrogel is developed by combining poly(ethylene glycol) sodium alginate, which synergize to form a tougher than natural cartilage. Encapsulated cells maintain high viability over 7 d culture period are deformed together with the hydrogel. By adding biocompatible nanoclay, printed in various shapes without requiring support material. As service our authors readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied authors. Such materials peer...

Abstract Sea animals such as leptocephali develop tissues and organs composed of active transparent hydrogels to achieve agile motions natural camouflage in water. Hydrogel-based actuators that can imitate the capabilities will enable new applications diverse fields. However, existing hydrogel actuators, mostly osmotic-driven, are intrinsically low-speed and/or low-force; their have not been explored. Here we show hydraulic actuations with designed structures properties give soft robots...

Abstract Hydrogels of conducting polymers, particularly poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), provide a promising electrical interface with biological tissues for sensing and stimulation, owing to their favorable mechanical properties. While existing methods mostly blend PEDOT:PSS other compositions such as non-conductive the blending can compromise resultant hydrogels’ and/or Here, we show that designing interconnected networks nanofibrils via simple method...

Stretchable hydrogel electronics and devices are designed by integrating stretchable conductors, functional chips, drug-delivery channels, reservoirs into stretchable, robust, biocompatible matrices. Novel applications include a smart wound dressing capable of sensing the temperatures various locations on skin, delivering different drugs to these locations, subsequently maintaining sustained release drugs. As service our authors readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied...

The emerging applications of hydrogels in devices and machines require to maintain robustness under cyclic mechanical loads. Whereas have been made tough resist fracture a single cycle load, these toughened gels still suffer from fatigue multiple cycles reported threshold for synthetic is on the order 1 100 J/m2. We propose that designing anti-fatigue-fracture requires making crack encounter objects with energies per unit area much higher than fracturing layer polymer chains. demonstrate...

Skeletal muscles possess the combinational properties of high fatigue resistance (1,000 J/m2), strength (1 MPa), low Young's modulus (100 kPa), and water content (70 to 80 wt %), which have not been achieved in synthetic hydrogels. The muscle-like are highly desirable for hydrogels' nascent applications load-bearing artificial tissues soft devices. Here, we propose a strategy mechanical training achieve aligned nanofibrillar architectures skeletal hydrogels, resulting properties. These...

3D printing has been intensively explored to fabricate customized structures of responsive materials including hydrogels, liquid-crystal elastomers, shape-memory polymers, and aqueous droplets. Herein, a new method material system capable 3D-printing hydrogel inks with programed bacterial cells as components into large-scale (3 cm), high-resolution (30 μm) living materials, where the can communicate process signals in programmable manner, are reported. The design 3D-printed is guided by...

Abstract The adhesion of soft connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, and cartilages) on bones in many animals can maintain high toughness (∽800 J m −2 ) over millions cycles mechanical loads. Such fatigue-resistant has not been achieved between synthetic hydrogels engineering materials, but is highly desirable for diverse applications such as artificial cartilages tendons, robust antifouling coatings, hydrogel robots. Inspired by the nanostructured interfaces tendons/ligaments/cartilages...

Living systems, such as bacteria, yeasts, and mammalian cells, can be genetically programmed with synthetic circuits that execute sensing, computing, memory, response functions. Integrating these functional living components into materials devices will provide powerful tools for scientific research enable new technological applications. However, it has been a grand challenge to maintain the viability, functionality, safety of in freestanding devices, which frequently undergo deformations...

Devices that interact with living organisms are typically made of metals, silicon, ceramics, and plastics. Implantation such devices for long-term monitoring or treatment generally requires invasive procedures. Hydrogels offer new opportunities human-machine interactions due to their superior mechanical compliance biocompatibility. Additionally, oral administration, coupled gastric residency, serves as a non-invasive alternative implantation. Achieving residency hydrogels the swell very...

Abstract Nature builds biological materials from limited ingredients, however, with unparalleled mechanical performances compared to artificial materials, by harnessing inherent structures across multi‐length‐scales. In contrast, synthetic material design overwhelmingly focuses on developing new compounds, and fails reproduce the properties of natural counterparts, such as fatigue resistance. Here, a simple yet general strategy engineer conventional hydrogels more than 100‐fold increase in...

Abstract Natural microbial sensing circuits can be rewired into new gene networks to build living sensors that detect and respond disease‐associated biomolecules. However, synthetic sensors, once ingested, are cleared from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract within 48 h; retaining devices in intestinal lumen is prone blockage or device migration. To localize microbes safely extend their residence GI for health monitoring sustained drug release, an ingestible magnetic hydrogel carrier developed...

Engineering conventional hydrogels with muscle-like anisotropic structures can efficiently increase the fatigue threshold over 1000 J m-2 along alignment direction; however, perpendicular to is still as low ≈100-300 , making them nonsuitable for those scenarios where isotropic properties are desired. Here, inspired by distinct structure-properties relationship of heart valves, a simple yet general strategy engineer unprecedented resistance, record-high 1,500 two arbitrary in-plane directions...

We report in this work several unexpected experimental observations on evaporation from hydrogels under visible light illumination. 1) Partially wetted become absorbing the spectral range, where absorption by both water and hydrogel materials is negligible. 2) Illumination of solar or visible-spectrum light-emitting diode leads to rates exceeding thermal limit, even without additional absorbers. 3) The are wavelength dependent, peaking at 520 nm. 4) Temperature vapor phase becomes cooler...

Hydrogels' applications are usually limited by their weak mechanical properties. Despite recent great progress in developing tough hydrogels, it is still challenging to achieve high values of stretchability, toughness and modulus all together synthetic hydrogels. In this paper, we designed highly stretchable, tough, yet stiff hydrogel composites via a combination nanoscale hybrid crosslinking macroscale fiber reinforcement. The were constructed impregnating 3D-printed thermoplastic-fiber...

Strong, tough, stretchable, and self-adhesive hydrogels are designed with intrinsically unstructured proteins. The extraordinary mechanical properties exhibited by these materials enabled an integration of toughening mechanisms that maintain high elasticity dissipate energy within the protein networks.

Significance Intermediate filaments (IFs) remain the least understood with respect to their functions in mammalian cells even though they have been related many devastating human diseases. Here we use optical tweezers perform micromechanical measurements living and IF enriched cytoskeletons devoid of actin microtubules. We identify that cytoskeletal vimentin IFs (VIFs) provide a hyperelastic rubber-like network regulates essential mechanical properties including stretchability, strength,...

Structures of thin films bonded on substrates have been used in technologies as diverse flexible electronics, soft robotics, bio-inspired adhesives, thermal-barrier coatings, medical bandages, wearable devices and living devices. The current paradigm for maintaining adhesion is to make the thinner, more compliant adhesive, but these requirements can compromise function or fabrication film-substrate structures. For example, there are limits how thin, adhesive epidermal electronic be...