Electroactive Oxidized Alginate/Gelatin/MXene (Ti3C2Tx) Composite Hydrogel with Improved Biocompatibility and Self-Healing Property

Abstract

Conductive hydrogels (CHs) have shown promising potential applied as wearable or epidermal sensors owing to their mechanical adaptability and similarity to natural tissues. However, it remains a great challenge to develop an integrated hydrogel combining outstanding conductive, self-healing and biocompatible performances with simple approaches. In this work, we propose a “one-pot” strategy to synthesize multifunctional CHs by incorporating two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes) multi-layer nano-flakes as nanofillers into oxidized alginate and gelatin hydrogels to form the composite CHs with various MXene contents. The presence of MXene with abundant surface groups and outstanding conductivity could improve the mechanical property and electroactivity of the composite hydrogels compared to pure oxidized alginate dialdehyde-gelatin (ADA-GEL). MXene-ADA-GELs kept good self-healing properties due to the dynamic imine linkage of the ADA-GEL network and have a promoting effect on mouse fibroblast (NH3T3s) attachment and spreading, which could be a result of the integration of MXenes with stimulating conductivity and hydrophily surface. This study suggests that the electroactive MXene-ADA-GELs can serve as an appealing candidate for skin wound healing and flexible bio-electronics.