Synthesis of Cross‐Linked Block Copolymer Nanoassemblies and their Coating Application

Shao, Guangran; Yu, Yuewen; Zhang, Wangqing

doi:10.1002/marc.202100909

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The stability of micelles can be improved by enhancing intramicellar interactions. Core cross-linking is an effective strategy for stabilizing polymer micelles by restricting the interchain slippage in the micelles and has been widely used to avoid the shear failure of micelles during in vivo circulation. − Therefore, we envision that intramicellar cross-linking can be a general strategy to regulate the mechanical properties of micelle-cross-linked hydrogels by regulating the chain relaxation dynamics of the micellar cores. Herein, we develop the core-cross-linked micelles as a new class of macro-cross-linkers for tough hydrogels with adaptive strain stiffening properties and elaborate the correlation of the intramicellar cross-linking density to the mechanical properties of the hydrogels (Scheme ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micelle-Cross-Linked Hydrogels with Strain Stiffening Properties Regulated by Intramicellar Cross-Linking

Zhao,

Fan,

Song

et al. 2024

Chem. Mater.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Micelle-cross-linked hydrogels are promising candidates for tough hydrogels with a tailorable chemical composition, nanostructure, mechanical properties, and functionality. In this article, intramicellar cross-linking was demonstrated to be a facile strategy for achieving micelle-cross-linked hydrogels with an adaptive strain stiffening property and decoupled fracture stress and Young's modulus. Core-cross-linked micelles with tunable intramicellar cross-linking density and tailorable chemical composition were synthesized by polymerization-induced self-assembly at a high concentration and were used as the macro-cross-linkers for tough polyacrylamide hydrogels. With the increase in the intramicellar cross-linking, these hydrogels exhibited increasing fracture stress and almost consistent Young's modulus, enabling a decoupled regulation of the fracture stress and modulus. Mooney−Rivlin analyses suggested the enhanced strain stiffening with the intramicellar cross-linking originating from the increasing permanent cross-links, which was confirmed by the relaxation and cyclic tensile tests. The structure−performance correlation was further verified by two additional core-cross-linked micelles with varying chemical compositions. Based on the structure−performance correlation, a photoresponsive micelle-cross-linked hydrogel was designed by using coumarin groups as the photoswitch for the regulation of the intramicellar cross-linking density. Taking advantage of the photoswitched dimerization/cleavage of coumarin, a photomodulated strain stiffening property and the decoupled regulation of the fracture stress and modulus were achieved. This work has provided new insights into the design of tough hydrogels with adaptive mechanical properties.

show abstract