Orthogonal thiol-ene 'click' reactions: a powerful combination for fabrication and functionalization of patterned hydrogels.

A combination of 'orthogonal' thiol-ene 'click' reactions is utilized for fabrication and functionalization of micro-patterned hydrogels. A furan-protected maleimide-containing parent copolymer is partially activated via the retro Diels-Alder reaction to obtain an 'orthogonally' functionalizable copolymer, where the different functional groups can be exploited for multi-functionalization or fabrication of functional hydrogels using combination of the nucleophilic and radical thiol-ene reactions.