Department of Molecular & Macromolecular Chemistry, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan.
Research & Development Center, Unitika Ltd., 23, Uji-Kozakura, Uji-Shi, Kyoto 611-0021, Japan.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Oct 14;12(41):46621-46628. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c11416. Epub 2020 Oct 1.
Poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate) (PMEA) has attracted attention as a biocompatible polymer that is used as an antithrombotic coating agent for medical devices, such as during artificial heart and lung fabrication. However, PMEA is a viscous liquid polymer with low , and its physical strength is poor even if a cross-linker is used, so it is difficult to make tough and freestanding objects from it. Here, we design and fabricate a biocompatible elastomer made of tough, self-supporting PMEA-silica composites. The toughness of the composite elastomer increases as a function of silica particle filling, and its stress at break is improved from 0.3 to 6.7 MPa. The fracture energy of the composite elastomer with 39.5 vol % silica particles is up to 15 times higher than that of the cross-linked PMEA with no silica particles and the material demonstrates stress-strain behavior that is similar to that of biological soft tissue, which exhibits nonlinear elasticity. In addition, the composite elastomer shows the potential to be an antithrombotic property, while the results of the platelet adhesion test of the composite elastomer show that the number of adhered platelets is not significantly affected by the silica addition. As the composite elastomer can be rapidly three-dimensional-printed into complex geometries with high-resolution features, it is expected to contribute to the development of medical devices from readily available materials.
聚（2-甲氧基乙基丙烯酸酯）（PMEA）作为一种生物相容性聚合物，已被广泛应用于医疗器械的抗血栓涂层剂，例如在人工心脏和肺的制造过程中。然而，PMEA 是一种低 的粘性液体聚合物，即使使用交联剂，其物理强度也很差，因此很难用它制造坚韧的、独立的物体。在这里，我们设计并制造了一种由坚韧的、自支撑的 PMEA-二氧化硅复合材料制成的生物相容性弹性体。复合材料弹性体的韧性随二氧化硅颗粒填充量的增加而增加，其断裂应力从 0.3 MPa 提高到 6.7 MPa。具有 39.5 体积%二氧化硅颗粒的复合材料弹性体的断裂能比没有二氧化硅颗粒的交联 PMEA 高 15 倍，并且该材料表现出与生物软组织相似的应力-应变行为，表现出非线性弹性。此外，该复合材料弹性体具有抗血栓性能的潜力，而复合材料弹性体的血小板黏附试验结果表明，添加二氧化硅对黏附的血小板数量没有显著影响。由于复合材料弹性体可以快速三维打印成具有高分辨率特征的复杂几何形状，预计它将有助于从现成材料开发医疗器械。
