Briggs Sam, Herting Scott, Fletcher Grace, Gruenbaum Rachel, Maitland Duncan J
Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jan 26;12(3):406. doi: 10.3390/nano12030406.
The ability to treat complex medical issues often requires dynamic and versatile materials. Electrospinning is a fabrication technique which produces nano-/microfibers that can mimic the extracellular matrix of many biological tissues while shape memory polymers allow for geometric changes in devices upon implantation. Here, we present the fabrication of electrospun polyurethane which exhibits the shape memory effect. To improve the mechanical and shape memory properties of this system, we incorporate vinyl side chains in the polymer backbone which enable crosslinking via thiol-ene click chemistry post fabrication. We also discuss a novel technique to improve photoinitiated crosslinking for electrospun materials. A material with these properties is potentially beneficial for various medical applications, such as vascular anastomosis, and the characterization of this material will be valuable in directing those applications.
治疗复杂医疗问题的能力通常需要动态且多功能的材料。静电纺丝是一种制造技术，可生产出能模仿许多生物组织细胞外基质的纳米/微纤维，而形状记忆聚合物则使植入后的器件发生几何形状变化。在此，我们展示了具有形状记忆效应的静电纺聚氨酯的制造方法。为改善该系统的机械性能和形状记忆性能，我们在聚合物主链中引入乙烯基侧链，使其在制造后能够通过硫醇-烯点击化学进行交联。我们还讨论了一种改善静电纺材料光引发交联的新技术。具有这些特性的材料可能对各种医疗应用有益，如血管吻合术，并且对该材料的表征将有助于指导这些应用。
