Bioinspired hierarchical composites

• Main Author: Kathirvel Periasamy
• Other Authors: Hortense Le Ferrand
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials::Material testing and characterization; Engineering::Materials::Composite materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153038
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Tendons play an important role in the human body. While injuries to these soft tissues are highly common, recovery is often slow due to the poor healing ability of the tissues. To effectively create a material which can replace tendons, it should also mimic the self-healing properties and hierarchical structure of tendons. In this project, we have fabricated a gelatin based hydrogel which demonstrated self-healing properties without external stimuli. Tannic acid, a polyphenol sourced from plants, was chosen as the crosslinker due to its hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding with gelatin. We crosslinked gelatin with tannic acid to achieve the self-healing property and added calcium phosphate (CaP) microplatelets to the polymer matrix. Alignment of the CaP platelets in the gel matrix is needed for anisotropic mechanical properties in the composite. This would allow us to create hierarchical structures. We tested the rheological properties of the gel to determine if it would be possible to control platelet alignment using magnetic fields. We found that the mechanical properties of the hydrogel could be tuned by tannic acid content. The results also revealed the thermosetting properties of the hydrogel.