Song Qiao, Gao Yongfeng, Xu Jiang-Fei, Qin Bo, Serpe Michael J, Zhang Xi
The Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
ACS Macro Lett. 2016 Oct 18;5(10):1084-1088. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00592. Epub 2016 Sep 14.
This letter describes a new method for fabricating supramolecular microgels from supramonomers. To this end, we designed and assembled supramonomers with one acrylate moiety on each end on the basis of noncovalent host-guest interactions, which could be utilized as a cross-linker. Then supramolecular microgels were fabricated through the copolymerization of supramonomers and -isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm). The supramolecular microgels not only showed temperature-responsive properties as expected from conventional PNIPAm-based microgels but also exhibited stimuli-responsive and degradable properties benefiting from the dynamic nature of supramonomers. In addition, it was found that the degradation kinetics of the supramolecular microgels was related greatly to the structure of the microgels, providing a way to tune the degradation kinetics of the supramolecular microgels. Various supramolecular microgels with desired structure and function are supposed to be facilely fabricated from supramonomers. It is anticipated that the supramolecular microgels can enrich the application of microgels by easily endowing the microgels with stimuli-responsive and degradable properties.
这封信描述了一种由超单体制备超分子微凝胶的新方法。为此，我们基于非共价主客体相互作用设计并组装了两端各有一个丙烯酸酯部分的超单体，其可用作交联剂。然后通过超单体与N-异丙基丙烯酰胺（NIPAm）的共聚制备超分子微凝胶。超分子微凝胶不仅表现出如传统基于聚N-异丙基丙烯酰胺的微凝胶所预期的温度响应特性，还因超单体的动态性质而展现出刺激响应和可降解特性。此外，发现超分子微凝胶的降解动力学与微凝胶的结构密切相关，这为调节超分子微凝胶的降解动力学提供了一种方法。有望从超单体轻松制备出具有所需结构和功能的各种超分子微凝胶。预计超分子微凝胶能够通过轻松赋予微凝胶刺激响应和可降解特性来丰富微凝胶的应用。
