Controlled mechanical properties and supramolecular chirality of hydrogels via pH change

In order to widen the use of soft materials in tissue engineering and life sciences, hydrogels with improved mechanical properties and controlled chirality are critical to achieve. A methodology is presented to enhance the mechanical properties and gain the control of chirality of two component hydrogels by merely varying the solution pH. pH change has been used as a way to ionize the specific functionalities into positive and negative charges. These positive and negative charges are crucial to provide a surge of electrostatic interactions to the components, imparting the improvement in stability and regulating their optical activity. Our goal is to throw light on the significance of opposite charges in the hydrogels for achievement of desired properties. • Role of ionisable groups is crucial to control viscoelastic and optical properties of supramolecular hydrogels. • Increasing the pH of the solution increases the number of negative ions by affecting the ionisable moieties, which interact with the positive charges in the solution. • Zeta potential of both materials has been analysed to ensure the presence of charged species.