Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2012 Nov 1;99:60-6. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2011.09.036. Epub 2011 Oct 5.
As a novel biomimetic gels deffering from conventonal stimuli-responsive polymer gels, we have developed a "self-oscillating" gel that swells and deswells periodically under constant condition without on-off switching of external stimuli. The gel is composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) to which the catalyst of the oscillating chemical reaction, called Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, is covalently immobilized. The chemical oscillation is converted to the mechanical oscillation of the gel through the change in hydrophilicity of polymer chains with the redox changes of the immobilized catalyst. By utilizing the self-oscillating gel, several kinds of functional material systems such as biomimetic actuators, etc. are expected. Here we review a potential application to functional surface to realize autonomous mass-transport by utilizing the peristaltic motion of the gel. With the propagation of the chemical wave, the loaded cargo is autonomously transported on the surface. In order to fabricate the self-driven gel conveyer for a wider use including biomedical applications, the interactions between the self-oscillating gel and the loaded gel cargo were investigated and their influence on the transport phenomena were evaluated.
作为一种新型的仿生凝胶，与传统的响应性聚合物凝胶不同，我们开发了一种“自振荡”凝胶，它在恒定条件下周期性地膨胀和收缩，而无需外部刺激的开/关切换。该凝胶由聚（N-异丙基丙烯酰胺）组成，其中振荡化学反应的催化剂，称为Belousov-Zhabotinsky 反应，通过共价键固定。化学振荡通过固定催化剂的氧化还原变化引起聚合物链亲水性的变化转化为凝胶的机械振荡。通过利用自振荡凝胶，可以预期几种功能材料系统，如仿生致动器等。在这里，我们综述了一种潜在的应用，通过利用凝胶的蠕动运动来实现自主质量传输的功能表面。随着化学波的传播，负载的货物在表面上自主运输。为了制造更广泛应用的自驱动凝胶输送器，包括生物医学应用，研究了自振荡凝胶与负载的凝胶货物之间的相互作用，并评估了它们对传输现象的影响。
