Cao Meiyu, Zeng Bingbing, Zheng Yu, Guo Shaoyun
The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University Chengdu 610065 Sichuan China
Sichuan Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Plastic/Rubber Complex Processing Technology Chengdu 610065 Sichuan China.
RSC Adv. 2023 Apr 27;13(19):13120-13127. doi: 10.1039/d3ra00670k. eCollection 2023 Apr 24.
The high value-added medical applications surely represent the leading edge of the shape-memory materials (SMPs) field. Herein, the biomedical SMPs were easily prepared incorporating silk fibroin (SF) into poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) through directly melt blending. Based on the intrinsic glass transition of PPC at ∼37 °C, the blends showed a body temperature responsiveness without a complex procedure for adjusting the switching temperature. By varying the SF content, the blend exhibited tunable shape-memory effects (SME), with a first enhancing but then worsening shape recoverability and a stable and excellent shape fixity. And the blend with 3 wt% SF achieved the best SME, enabling an efficient shape reconfiguration under a 37 °C water bath. It was revealed that SF acted as physical cross-links to connect the PPC chains forming a shape-memory network, thus can well retard irreversible the chain slipping of PPC, leading to the improvement of recoverability. Moreover, the results obtained from cell compatibility testing showed the huge application potential of this material in the biomedical field. This work proposed a facile preparation strategy for developing biocompatible body heat actuated shape-memory materials.
高附加值的医学应用无疑代表了形状记忆材料（SMPs）领域的前沿。在此，通过直接熔融共混将丝素蛋白（SF）引入聚碳酸亚丙酯（PPC）中，可轻松制备生物医学SMPs。基于PPC在约37°C的固有玻璃化转变温度，该共混物表现出体温响应性，无需复杂的调节转变温度的程序。通过改变SF含量，共混物呈现出可调的形状记忆效应（SME），形状恢复性先增强后变差，而形状固定性稳定且优异。含3 wt% SF的共混物实现了最佳的SME，在37°C水浴下能实现高效的形状重构。结果表明，SF作为物理交联剂连接PPC链形成形状记忆网络，从而能很好地抑制PPC链的不可逆滑移，提高恢复性。此外，细胞相容性测试结果表明该材料在生物医学领域具有巨大的应用潜力。这项工作提出了一种简便的制备策略，用于开发生物相容性的体热驱动形状记忆材料。
