Reversibly tuning hydrogel stiffness through photocontrolled dynamic covalent crosslinks.

ABSTRACT: Controlling the physical properties of soft materials with external stimuli enables researchers to mimic and study dynamic systems. Of particular interest are hydrogels, polymer networks swollen by water with broad applicability to biomedicine. To control hydrogel mechanics with light, researchers have relied on a limited number of photochemical reactions. Here we introduce an approach to reversibly tune hydrogel mechanics with light by manipulating the stability of dynamic covalent crosslinks at the molecular level. The equilibrium between a boronic acid and diol to form a boronic ester can be altered by the configuration of an adjacent azobenzene photoswitch. By irradiating branched polymers bearing azobenzene-boronic acid and diol end groups with two different wavelengths of light, we c

SUBMITTER: Accardo JV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6050525 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature