Ca<sup>2+</sup> and Ag<sup>+</sup> orient low-molecular weight amphiphile self-assembly into “nano-fishnet” fibrillar hydrogels with unusual β-sheet-like raft domains
Alexandre Poirier, Patrick Le Griel, Ingo Hoffmann, Javier Pérez, Petra Pernot, Jérôme Fresnais, Niki Baccile
Abstract
ions added to a micellar solution of a novel glycolipid surfactant, whereas salt-induced fibrillation is not common for surfactants. The resulting SAFiN, which forms a hydrogel above 0.5 wt%, has a "nano-fishnet" structure, characterized by a fibrous network of both entangled fibers and β-sheet-like rafts, generally observed for silk fibroin, actin hydrogels or mineral imogolite nanotubes, but not known for SAFiNs. The β-sheet-like raft domains are characterized by a combination of cryo-TEM and SAXS and seem to contribute to the stability of glycolipid gels. Furthermore, glycolipid is obtained by fermentation from natural resources (glucose, rapeseed oil), thus showing that naturally engineered compounds can have unprecedented properties, when compared to the wide range of chemically derived amphiphiles.