Design and fabrication of a high-strength hydrogel with ideally homogeneous network structure from tetrahedron-like macromonomers
Design and fabrication of a high-strength hydrogel with ideally homogeneous network structure from tetrahedron-like macromonomers
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DOI：
10.1021/ma800476x
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发表时间：
2008-07-22
期刊：
影响因子：
5.5
通讯作者：
Chung, Ung-il
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Sakai, Takamasa;Matsunaga, Takuro;Chung, Ung-il
作为一类新型的高强度水凝胶，我们设计了一种四聚乙二醇凝胶，将两个对称的四面体大小相同的大单体结合在一起。由于凝胶网络的纳米结构单元是由四面体PEG臂的长度定义的，因此凝胶具有均匀的结构，因此具有与天然关节软骨相当的高机械强度。此外，由于凝胶是由两种生物相容性的单体溶液混合形成的，凝胶反应本身和所得凝胶也是生物相容性的。断裂强度在单体重叠浓度（C*）和2C*处有局部最大值。动态光散射测量表明，C*处的网络几乎不存在不均匀性。因此，我们首次通过控制网络结构的均匀性，成功地设计和制备了一种高强度水凝胶，这将产生多重效应，即有助于对理想网络的理解，为设计高强度凝胶提供了一种通用策略，并开辟了水凝胶的生物医学应用。
As a new class of high-strength hydrogels, we designed a tetra-PEG gel by combining two symmetrical tetrahedron-like macromonomers of the same size. Because the nanostructural unit of the gel network was defined by the length of the tetrahedral PEG arm, the gel had a homogeneous structure and resultant high mechanical strength comparable to that of native articular cartilage. Furthermore, since the gel was formed by mixing two biocompatible rnacromonomer solutions, the gelation reaction itself and the resultant gel were also biocompatible. The breaking strength had local maxima at the overlap concentration of the macromonomers (C*) and at 2C*. Dynamic light scattering measurement indicated the near absence of inhomogeneities in the network at C*. Thus, we successfully designed and fabricated a high-strength hydrogel by controlling the homogeneity of network structure for the first time, which will lead to multiplied effects, i.e., contributing to the understanding of ideal networks, providing a universal strategy for designing high-strength gels, and opening up the biomedical application of hydrogels.