Development of dopant-free conductive bioelastomers

Abstract

Conductive biodegradable materials are of great interest for various biomedical applications, such as tissue repair and bioelectronics. They generally consist of multiple components, including biodegradable polymer/non-degradable conductive polymer/dopant, biodegradable conductive polymer/dopant or biodegradable polymer/non-degradable inorganic additives. The dopants or additives induce material instability that can be complex and possibly toxic. Material softness and elasticity are also highly expected for soft tissue repair and soft electronics. To address these concerns, we designed a unicomponent dopant-free conductive polyurethane elastomer (DCPU) by chemically linking biodegradable segments, conductive segments, and dopant molecules into one polymer chain. The DCPU films which had robust mechanical properties with high elasticity and conductivity can be degraded enzymatically and by hydrolysis. It exhibited great electrical stability in physiological environment with charge. Mouse 3T3 fibroblasts survived and proliferated on these films exhibiting good cytocompatibility. Polymer degradation products were non-toxic. DCPU could also be processed into a porous scaffold and in an in vivo subcutaneous implantation model, exhibited good tissue compatibility with extensive cell infiltration over 2 weeks. Such biodegradable DCPU with good flexibility and elasticity, processability, and electrical stability may find broad applications for tissue repair and soft/stretchable/wearable bioelectronics.

Biodegradable Polymeric Materials in Degradable Electronic Devices

“…The resulting biodegradable elastomers are also highly stretchable. Images adapted with permission from refs ( 44 , 46 , 49 , 61 , and 64 ). Copyright 2017 Elsevier, 2015 Springer, 2009 Elsevier, 2014 Royal Society of Chemistry, and 2016 authors of ref ( 64 ).…”

“…This improvement in electronic stability was attributed to reduced dopant removal due to it being covalently linked to the conducting polymer. 64 …”

Superelastic and pH-Responsive Degradable Dendrimer Cryogels Prepared by Cryo-aza-Michael Addition Reaction

“…At 70% strain, dendrimer cryogel supports over 6400 times its weight without collapsing. This property is rarely seen in other polymeric elastomers 16 , 22 , 29 , 32 – 34 . Furthermore, the dendrimer cryogel exhibits excellent rebound performance and does not show significant stress relaxation under cyclic deformation at room temperature.…”

Physicochemical properties and in vitro cytotoxicity of iron oxide-based nanoparticles modified with antiangiogenic and antitumor peptide A7R

“…2a) exhibits band at 1702 cm −1 , which can be ascribed to C=O stretching mode of COOH groups (Sciacca et al 2010). Bands due to C–H stretching vibrations are observed around 2940 and 2860 cm −1 (Xu et al 2016). The bands around 1440 cm −1 are related to C–H bending, while this around 1400 cm −1 can be associated with C–O–H bending or CH 2 deformation.

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