Recent Trends in Mussel-Inspired Catechol-Containing Polymers (A Review)

Abstract

Syntheses and applications of mussel-inspired polymeric materials have gained a foothold in research in recent years. Mussel-inspired chemistry coupled to Michael addition and Schiff’s base reactions was the key success for this intensive research. Unequivocally, The basic building brick of these materials is catechol-containing moiety, namely, 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (L-DOPA or DOPA) and dopamine (DA). These catechol-based units within the chemical structure of the material ensure chiefly its adhesive characteristic to adherends of different natures. The newly-made catechol-bearing polymeric materials exhibit unique features, implying their importance in several uses and applications. Technology advent is being advantaged with these holdfast mussel protein-like materials. This review sheds light into the recent advances of such mussel-inspired materials for their adhesion capacity to several substrata of different natures, and for their applications mainly in antifouling coatings and nanoparticles technology.

Molecular thermodynamics for amino‐acid adsorption at inorganic surfaces

“…[42][43][44] DOPA exhibits excellent adhesive and cohesive properties through its strong binding with inorganic surfaces by a bidentate bonding of its two hydroxyl groups in the side chain and complexation with multivalent ions by its aromatic group, respectively. 45 While most neutral amino acids show little or no adsorption at inorganic surfaces, 18 DOPA displays strong adsorption that is highly dependent on the solution pH and salt concentration.…”

Increasing the Scale and Decreasing the Cost of Making a Catechol-Containing Adhesive Polymer

“…A common approach is to append catechol groups to synthetic polymer hosts. 6 Many new materials have been made within the categories of adhesives, coatings, functionalization of nanoparticles, imaging agents, drug delivery systems, and biomedical hydrogels. 7−9 For biomimetic polymers containing catechol, the most widespread copolymer structures are acrylate-or methacrylatebased monomers since dopamine methacrylamide can be easily copolymerized with acrylate, methacrylate, and other monomers containing carboxylic acid, 10 ethylene glycol, 11 cationic, 12,13 T h i s c o n t e n t i s anionic, 12,14 or fluorescent 15 moieties.…”

A platform for functionalization of cellulose, chitin/chitosan, alginate with polydopamine: A review on fundamentals and technical applications

“…The synthetic production of dopa may follow a top-down approach (e.g., extraction or recombination from its biological host), or a bottom-up approach (e.g., direct chemical synthesis of engineered peptide sequences or macromolecular structures). This paragraph is intended as a brief overview, as the background of dopa biotechnology was covered in excellent reviews [42,43]. While comparing the quality of Mefp's after chemical extraction or recombinant production, the ones extracted from mussels show better adhesive properties, but recombination offers a cheaper alternative with possibility to include additional engineering functions [44].…”