Journals Information
Nanoscience and Nanoengineering(CEASE PUBLICATION) Vol. 1(1), pp. 23 - 35
DOI: 10.13189/nn.2013.010104
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On Molecular Gelation Mechanism of L-Cysteine Based Hydrogel
Pavel Komarov1,2,*, Maxim Ovchinnikov2, Svetlana Khizhnyak3, Vladimir Alekseev2, Ivan Mikhailov2, Pavel Pakhomov2
1 Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova st. 28, Moscow, 119991 Russia
2 Tver State University, Sadovyi per. 35, Tver, 170002 Russia
3 Tver State Medical Academy, Sovetskaya st. 4, Tver, 170642 Russia
ABSTRACT
A method for preparing a supramolecular hydrogel composed of a mixture of L-cysteine, and silver nitrate is reported. The main features of the hydrogel are gelation at low content of the dispersed phase (~ 0.01%) induced by addition of various salts (sulfates, sulfites, chlorides, bromides, and others) and thixotropic behavior. On the basis of experimental data, the mechanism of gelation is suggested. It is assumed that filament-like aggregates in the system are formed from silver mercaptide zwitterions due to noncovalent bonding as a result of self-assembly processes, addition of a salt leads to physical cross-linking, and gel network formation. An atomistic computer model is developed to confirm the supposed mechanism of gelation. It is established that resulting molecular configurations are stabilized by the interactions of 鈥揘H3+ and 鈥揅(O)O鈥� groups of silver mercaptide zwitterions comprising neighboring clusters. These assumptions are taken as a basis of a mesoscopic model to study the processes of nucleation and growth of filament-like aggregates on a large spatial scale.
KEYWORDS
Physical Gel, Cysteine-silver Solution, Self-assembly, Gelation, Computer Simulations
Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Pavel Komarov , Maxim Ovchinnikov , Svetlana Khizhnyak , Vladimir Alekseev , Ivan Mikhailov , Pavel Pakhomov , "On Molecular Gelation Mechanism of L-Cysteine Based Hydrogel," Nanoscience and Nanoengineering(CEASE PUBLICATION), Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 23 - 35, 2013. DOI: 10.13189/nn.2013.010104.
(b). APA Format:
Pavel Komarov , Maxim Ovchinnikov , Svetlana Khizhnyak , Vladimir Alekseev , Ivan Mikhailov , Pavel Pakhomov (2013). On Molecular Gelation Mechanism of L-Cysteine Based Hydrogel. Nanoscience and Nanoengineering(CEASE PUBLICATION), 1(1), 23 - 35. DOI: 10.13189/nn.2013.010104.