Y. Liao, J.M. Grolman
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology,
Israel
Keywords: Mechanophore, Mechanical forces, Biomaterial, Alginate, Alpaca wool, Polystyrene
Summary:
Mechanical forces plays critical roles in a wide variety of biological processes and artificial materials. In many applications, self-reporting, stimuli-responsive functions are desirable in a broad range of materials to enable the detection of mechanical forces. Based on the convenience of click chemistry, we present a strategy to "dip-conjugate" mechanophores, allowing for the universal conversion of various biologically derived materials and commercial polymers into chemically integrated, self-reporting force sensors. This new protocol enables detectable mechanochromic responses in synthetic polymers, carbohydrates, and proteins at strain levels as low as 5%. This advancement makes mechanophores especially relevant for studying biological processes that were previously inaccessible to such analysis. These results push the limits for mechanophore use in far more types of polymeric materials in applications ranging from molecular-level force damage detection to direct and quantitative 3D force measurements in mechanobiology.