Photomediated post-fabrication modification of azlactone-functionalized gels for the development of hydrogel actuators

Abstract

<p>Photomediated post-fabrication modification of reactive, azlactone-functionalized gels results in chemical gradients that facilitate fast and reversible, pH-responsive shape deformations.</p>

Molecular design of polymer coatings capable of photo‐triggered stress relaxation via dynamic covalent bond exchange

“…40,41,42 Poly(2-vinyl-4,4-dimethyl azlactone) (PVDMA) is an ideal building block as it is synthesized by conventional controlled radical polymerization techniques, 43 and undergoes "click-like" ring opening functionalization with a variety of nucleophiles without generating byproducts. 44,45 By post-polymerization modification, we prepared a library of polymers with five different loadings of allyl dithiol and corresponding control polymers functionalized with a non-dynamic synthetic analogue to investigate the effect of dynamic bond concentration on stress relaxation. We determined film stress from filmsubstrate curvature monitored by a custom-build optical cantilever with the thin film approximation of the Stoney equation.…”