Aqueous worm gels can be reconstituted from freeze-dried diblock copolymer powder

Soft Matter. 2014 Jun 14;10(22):3984-92. doi: 10.1039/c4sm00415a. Epub 2014 Apr 14.

Abstract

Worm-like diblock copolymer nanoparticles comprising poly(glycerol monomethacrylate) (PGMA) as a stabilizer block and poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) (PHPMA) as a core-forming block were readily synthesized at 10% w/w solids via aqueous dispersion polymerization at 70 °C using Reversible Addition-Fragmentation chain Transfer (RAFT) chemistry. On cooling to 20 °C, soft transparent free-standing gels are formed due to multiple inter-worm interactions. These aqueous PGMA-PHPMA diblock copolymer worms were freeze-dried, then redispersed in water with cooling to 3-5 °C before warming up to 20 °C; this protocol ensures molecular dissolution of the copolymer chains, which aids formation of a transparent aqueous gel. Rheology, SAXS and TEM studies confirm that such reconstituted gels comprise formed PGMA-PHPMA copolymer worms and they possess essentially the same physical properties determined for the original worm gels prior to freeze-drying. Such worm gel reconstitution is expected to be highly beneficial in the context of various biomedical applications, since it enables worm gels to be readily prepared using a wide range of cell growth media as the continuous aqueous phase.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Freeze Drying
  • Gels / chemistry*
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry
  • Polymers / chemical synthesis
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Rheology
  • Scattering, Small Angle
  • Temperature
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

  • Gels
  • Polymers