Property and Application of BACy‐Based Functional Hydrogels

Conventional polyacrylamide hydrogels prepared from the free radical polymerization between acrylamide and N,N′‐methylenebisacrylamide (NMBA) have been frequently used in the biochemical technique like the sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) to resolve protein mixtures. In this study, we have prepared an alternative polyacrylamide hydrogel from the cross‐linking of acrylamide and N,N′‐bisacrylylcystamine (BACy). In addition, we have compared the BACy‐based hydrogel with the NMBA‐based polyacrylamide hydrogel for their physical properties such as swelling ratio, shear modulus, crosslink density and morphology. Moreover, we further determined whether BACy‐based polyacrylamide hydrogel could be applied to SDS‐PAGE and proteomics research. The results showed that this type of hydrogel is capable of separating proteins and facilitates further in‐gel protein digestion and the following protein identifications by mass spectrometry. In summary, our study provides a basis for the putative application of BACy‐based hydrogels.