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Stimulus-Responsive Transport Properties of Nanocolloidal Hydrogels.
- Source :
-
Biomacromolecules [Biomacromolecules] 2023 Mar 13; Vol. 24 (3), pp. 1173-1183. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 29. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Applications of polymer hydrogels in separation technologies, environmental remediation, and drug delivery require control of hydrogel transport properties that are largely governed by the pore dimensions. Stimulus-responsive change in pore size offers the capability to change gel's transport properties "on demand". Here, we report a nanocolloidal hydrogel that exhibits temperature-controlled increase in pore size and, as a result, enhanced transport of encapsulated species from the gel. The hydrogel was formed by the covalent cross-linking of aldehyde-modified cellulose nanocrystals and chitosan carrying end-grafted poly( N -isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm) molecules. Owing to the temperature-mediated coil-to-globule transition of pNIPAm grafts, they acted as a temperature-responsive "gate" in the hydrogel. At elevated temperature, the size of the pores showed up to a 4-fold increase, with no significant changes in volume, in contrast with conventional pNIPAm-derived gels exhibiting a reduction in both pore size and volume in similar conditions. Temperature-mediated transport properties of the gel were explored by studying diffusion of nanoparticles with different dimensions from the gel, leading to the established correlation between the kinetics of diffusion-governed nanoparticle release and the ratio nanoparticle dimensions-to-pore size. The proposed approach to stimulus-responsive control of hydrogel transport properties has many applications, including their use in nanomedicine and tissue engineering.
- Subjects :
- Polymers
Nanomedicine
Temperature
Hydrogels chemistry
Drug Delivery Systems
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1526-4602
- Volume :
- 24
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Biomacromolecules
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 36580573
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c01222