Fig. 4: Mechanically triggered self-stiffening or self-softening of hydrogels.
From: Shape morphing of hydrogels by harnessing enzyme enabled mechanoresponse
a Self-stiffening behavior of the hydrogels under repetitive mechanical stretching. The thrombin and hirudin used in control groups are not modified with a double bond and, hence, are not connected to the polymer network. b Summary of the mechanical properties of the self-stiffening and control hydrogels after each tensile cycle. c Self-softening behavior of the hydrogels under repetitive mechanical stretching. In control group 1, the thrombin and hirudin used are not modified with a double bond. In control group 2, the crosslinker was a thrombin non-cleavable peptide. d Summary of the mechanical properties of the self-softening and control hydrogels after each tensile cycle. Each experiment was repeated three times independently with similar results. Data are presented as mean values with error bars representing the standard deviation of three independent replicates (n = 3 in each group). Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Thr-S thrombin-SNAP, Hir-S Hirudin-SNAP, Thr-V thrombin-SNAP-Vinyl, Hir-V hirudin-SNAP-Vinyl, TCP thrombin cleavable peptide.
