Caffeine-catalyzed gels
Name
1-s2.0-S0142961218302576-main.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.16 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
cbefa9f93c36320b2ad8e64c06b1790c
Author(s)
DiCiccio, Angela M
Lee, Young-Ah Lucy
Glettig, Dean L
Walton, Elizabeth SE
de la Serna, Eva L
Montgomery, Veronica A
Grant, Tyler M
Langer, Robert
Traverso, Giovanni
Date Issued
2018
Journal
Biomaterials
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2018 The Authors Covalently cross-linked gels are utilized in a broad range of biomedical applications though their synthesis often compromises easy implementation. Cross-linking reactions commonly utilize catalysts or conditions that can damage biologics and sensitive compounds, producing materials that require extensive post processing to achieve acceptable biocompatibility. As an alternative, we report a batch synthesis platform to produce covalently cross-linked materials appropriate for direct biomedical application enabled by green chemistry and commonly available food grade ingredients. Using caffeine, a mild base, to catalyze anhydrous carboxylate ring-opening of diglycidyl-ether functionalized monomers with citric acid as a tri-functional crosslinking agent we introduce a novel poly(ester-ether) gel synthesis platform. We demonstrate that biocompatible Caffeine Catalyzed Gels (CCGs) exhibit dynamic physical, chemical, and mechanical properties, which can be tailored in shape, surface texture, solvent response, cargo release, shear and tensile strength, among other potential attributes. The demonstrated versatility, low cost and facile synthesis of these CCGs renders them appropriate for a broad range of customized engineering applications including drug delivery constructs, tissue engineering scaffolds, and medical devices.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.BIOMATERIALS.2018.04.010
