Figure 6.

The bulk mechanical properties of the designed hydrogels: (a) General procedure for preparation of protein hydrogel rings for mechanical testing. All protein gels were cross-linked using TIP-1:Kir complexes. (GB1)8, (GB1-HP67)4 and SH3 were used as the LBMs and the corresponding hydrogels were denoted as Gel-1, Gel-2 and Gel-3, respectively; (b) Setup for the mechanical tests of ring-shaped hydrogel. Stress-strain curves for the Gel-1, Gel-2 and Gel-3 until their breakage (c–e). Representative stretching-relaxation curves for the Gel-1, Gel-2 and Gel-3 (f–h). The curves are horizontally offset for clarity. The final strains are shown on the curves. Insets show the superposition of the stretching-relaxation curves at different strains [178]. The figure is reproduced from an open access article published by Nature under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02917-6#rightslink).