Development of Self-Healing Composite Hydrogel Based on Gelatin and Glycerol Reinforced With Silk Amino Acids and Graphene Oxide.

Silk amino acids (SAAs) are widely used in tissue engineering and wound healing due to their biocompatibility and good interaction with biological materials. This study aims to develop a composite hydrogel based on gelatin, deionized water (DI water), and glycerol, with the addition of SAAs to study their effect on self-healing capability and graphene oxide (GO) to study its effect on the mechanical properties and healing behavior of the material. From tensile testing, when SAA-containing specimens were cut apart completely and the cut surfaces were brought back into contact and left to heal for 24 h under the specified environmental conditions, the material recovered up to 28.1% of its original tensile strength (the SAAs 20% formulation). For the effect of GO, the addition of GO at 0.5 phr increased the tensile strength by approximately 87% (p = 0.0124), while at the same time reducing the self-healing efficiency to 11.3%-13.4%. The results show that SAA-containing hydrogels can undergo self-healing under the specified environmental conditions, although the recovery of mechanical properties after complete cutting remains limited, and the addition of GO reflects a trade-off between mechanical strength and self-healing capability. The data obtained from this study can be used as a basis for the development and improvement of self-healing hydrogels for biomaterial applications, as well as supporting information for further study in soft prosthetic limbs, soft robotic systems, and medical devices in the future.