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Growing evidence supports a critical role of metal-ligand coordination in many attributes of biological materials including adhesion, self-assembly, toughness, and hardness without mineralization Rubin DJ, Miserez A, Waite JH (2010) Advances in Insect Physiology: Insect Integument and Color, eds Jérôme C, Stephen JS (Academic Press, London), pp 75-133. Coordination between Fe and catechol ligands has recently been correlated to the hardness and high extensibility of the cuticle of mussel byssal threads and proposed to endow self-healing properties Harrington MJ, Masic A, Holten-Andersen N, Waite JH, Fratzl P (2010) Science 328:216-220. Inspired by the pH jump experienced by proteins during maturation of a mussel byssus secretion, we have developed a simple method to control catechol-Fe(3+) interpolymer cross-linking via pH. The resonance Raman signature of catechol-Fe(3+) cross-linked polymer gels at high pH was similar to that from native mussel thread cuticle and the gels displayed elastic moduli (G') that approach covalently cross-linked gels as well as self-healing properties.
Holten‐Andersen et al. (2011) studied this question.