Protein-based functional materials are an important topic in recent materials science. The heat-induced gelation property of egg white is common knowledge. However, because gelled egg white is brittle caused by the inhomogeneous network structure of denatured proteins, it is not a practical material. The fluid material containing orderly condensed egg white proteins at regular intervals was produced by the mixing of both anionic and cationic surfactant to unpurified egg white proteins. This egg white-based material was gelled by heating and showed high mechanical properties. The maximum compressive fracture strength was <150-fold higher than that of usual boiled egg white.
Program Information
JST ERATO
IYODA Supra-integrated Material
Journal Information
Tatsuya Nojima and Tomokazu Iyoda. “Egg white-based strong hydrogel via ordered protein condensation”. NPG Asia Materials, published online January 10, 2018, doi: 10.1038/am.2017.219.
Contact
[About Research]
Nojima Tatsuya
Associate Professor, State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University, China
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[About Program]
Masashi Furukawa
Department of Research Project, JST
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