Hydrogels Based on Dynamic Covalent Chemistry
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2017) | Viewed by 27240
Special Issue Editor
Interests: dynamic hydrogels; stimuli-responsive materials; colloids; emulsions; biomaterials; tissue engineering; wound healing; drug delivery; rheology
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A Special Issue on “Hydrogels Based on Dynamic Covalent Chemistry” is a perfect window to advertise scientific efforts on the design and characterization of this new type of hydrogels scarcely reported, so far, in the literature, but that are related to various areas, such as soft matter, biomaterials, tissue engineering, and drug delivery.
Conventional hydrogels, either covalent or physical, are considered as static 3D networks with constant rheological and mechanical properties. The incorporation of reversible covalent bonds, such as [phenylboronate–salicylhydroxamate] reaction, boronic ester bonds, and thiol/disulfide exchange among others, in polymeric network offers a new approach to design hydrogels with dynamic properties. First, the functionalization of polymeric material with such functionalities implies novel synthetic strategies. In addition, the continuous reversible reaction allows the permanent movement of the network, which results in peculiar properties for the resulting hydrogel. While the dynamic behaviour is often related to the self-healing ability of the 3D network, the “moving network” results in particular mechanical properties like frequency dependent stiffness, also called shock absorbing properties. Although this property has been attributed to the kinetic of the reversible covalent bond, mathematical modelisation is still missing to confirm the experimental observation. Interestingly, the stiffness of dynamic hydrogels can be easily tuned from highly viscous material to very hard free-standing hydrogels. All those new hydrogels have the particularity to be injected and reshaped indefinitely, which make them potential candidate as biomaterial for tissue engineering and drug delivery systems.
Dr. Damien Dupin
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- reversible covalent bond
- dynamic hydrogels
- self-healing
- rheology
- mechanical properties
- relaxation time
- frequency-dependent stiffness
- biomaterials
- scaffold
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