Ion-Dependent Modulation of Self-Healing Hydrogels

A peptide based gelator has been reported that forms supramolecular hydrogels in presence of divalent metal ions through metal-ligand interaction. These hydrogels are multi-stimuli responsive and self-healing in nature. The rheology studies show that the mechanical strength and healing proper-ties are highly dependent on metal ions and mechanical strength of these hydrogels could be tune by applying appropriate metal ions. It has been found that the mechanical and healing properties also depend on the counter anion used. Furthermore, the water suppression 1HNMR study in hydrogel state was performed to probe the hydrogen bonding inter-action between gelator to gelator and gelator to water molecules in real-time.