Pei Xiaodong, Zan Tingting, Li Hengming, Chen Yingjun, Shi Linqi, Zhang Zhenkun
Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
ACS Macro Lett. 2015 Nov 17;4(11):1215-1219. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00677. Epub 2015 Oct 21.
Imparting ordered structures into otherwise amorphous hydrogels is expected to endow these popular materials with novel multiple-stimuli responsiveness that promises many applications. The current contribution reports a method to fabricate pure polymeric hydrogels with an inherent chiral internal structure by templating on the chiral nematic liquid crystal phase of a rodlike virus. A method was developed to form macroscopically homogeneous chiral templates by confinement induced self-assembly in the presence of monomers, cross-linkers and initiators. Polymerization induced gelation was performed without perturbing the elegant 3D chiral organization of the rodlike virus bearing double bonds. Furthermore, a suitable method was found to remove the organic virus template while keeping the desired polymeric replica intact, resulting in a pure polymeric hydrogel with a unique internal chiral feature that originates from the 3D chiral ordering of the cylindrical pores left by the virus. Multiple-stimuli responsiveness has been demonstrated and can be quantified by the change of the pitch of the chiral feature. The chiral structure endows the otherwise featureless hydrogel with a unique material property that might be used as a readout signal for sensing and acts as the basis for responsive, biomimetic nanostructured materials.
将有序结构引入原本无定形的水凝胶中，有望赋予这些广受欢迎的材料新颖的多重刺激响应性，从而带来许多应用。本文报道了一种通过在棒状病毒的手性向列液晶相上进行模板化来制备具有固有手性内部结构的纯聚合物水凝胶的方法。开发了一种方法，通过在单体、交联剂和引发剂存在下的限域诱导自组装来形成宏观均匀的手性模板。在不破坏带有双键的棒状病毒优雅的三维手性组织的情况下进行聚合诱导凝胶化。此外，还找到了一种合适的方法来去除有机病毒模板，同时保持所需的聚合物复制品完整，从而得到一种具有独特内部手性特征的纯聚合物水凝胶，该特征源自病毒留下的圆柱形孔的三维手性排列。已经证明了多重刺激响应性，并且可以通过手性特征间距的变化来量化。手性结构赋予原本无特征的水凝胶一种独特的材料特性，该特性可用作传感的读出信号，并作为响应性仿生纳米结构材料的基础。
