Wang Yingshuai, Zhu Yanxia, Zhao Penghe, Wei Bin, Fan Mingjian, Chen Danyang, Jin Zhaokui, He Qianjun
School of Life Science and Technology, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, Shandong, China.
Central Laboratory, Longgang District People's Hospital of Shenzhen & the Third Affiliated Hospital (Provisional) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Bioact Mater. 2021 Dec 18;14:31-41. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.12.014. eCollection 2022 Aug.
Engineering biomaterials to meet specific biomedical applications raises high requirements of mechanical performances, and simultaneous strengthening and toughening of polymer are frequently necessary but very challenging in many cases. In this work, we propose a new concept of nanoconcrete welding polymer chains, where mesoporous CaCO (mCaCO) nanoconcretes which are composed of amorphous and nanocrystalline phases are developed to powerfully weld polymer chains through siphoning-induced occlusion, hydration-driven crystallization and dehydration-driven compression of nanoconcretes. The mCaCO nanoconcrete welding technology is verified to be able to remarkably augment strength, toughness and anti-fatigue performances of a model polymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate--3-hydroxyvalerate)-based porous membrane. Mechanistically, we have revealed polymer-occluded nanocrystal structure and welding-derived microstress which is much stronger than interfacial Van der Waals force, thus efficiently preventing the generation of microcracks and repairing initial microcracks by microcracks-induced hydration, crystallization and polymer welding of mCaCO nanoconcretes. Constructed porous membrane is used as wound dressing, exhibiting a special nanoplates-constructed surface topography as well as a porous structure with plentiful oriented, aligned and opened pore channels, improved hydrophilicity, water vapor permeability, anti-bacterial and cell adherence, in support of wound healing and skin structural/functional repairing. The proposed nanoconcrete-welding-polymer strategy breaks a new pathway for improving the mechanical performances of polymers.
设计能够满足特定生物医学应用的生物材料对机械性能提出了很高的要求，在许多情况下，聚合物的同时增强和增韧往往是必要的，但极具挑战性。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种纳米混凝土焊接聚合物链的新概念，其中由无定形相和纳米晶相组成的介孔碳酸钙（mCaCO）纳米混凝土被开发出来，通过纳米混凝土的虹吸诱导封堵、水化驱动结晶和脱水驱动压缩来强力焊接聚合物链。mCaCO纳米混凝土焊接技术被证实能够显著提高基于聚（3-羟基丁酸酯-3-羟基戊酸酯）的模型聚合物多孔膜的强度、韧性和抗疲劳性能。从机理上讲，我们揭示了聚合物包裹的纳米晶体结构以及比界面范德华力强得多的焊接衍生微应力，从而有效地防止微裂纹的产生，并通过mCaCO纳米混凝土的微裂纹诱导水化、结晶和聚合物焊接来修复初始微裂纹。构建的多孔膜用作伤口敷料，呈现出特殊的纳米片构建的表面形貌以及具有大量定向、排列和开放孔道的多孔结构，改善了亲水性、水蒸气渗透性、抗菌性和细胞粘附性，有助于伤口愈合和皮肤结构/功能修复。所提出的纳米混凝土焊接聚合物策略为提高聚合物的机械性能开辟了一条新途径。
