Li Wan, Wang Zhonghui, Jiang Le, Feng Menghua, Fan Xinnian, Fan Haojun, Xiang Jun
College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Sep 14;15(18):3762. doi: 10.3390/polym15183762.
Light-degradable hydrogels have a wide range of application prospects in the field of biomedicine. However, the provision of a facile synthetic approach to light-degradable hydrogels under mild conditions remains a challenge for researchers. To surmount this challenge, a facile synthetic approach to UV-degradable hydrogels is demonstrated in this manuscript. Initially, an UV-degradable crosslinker (UVDC) having -nitrobenzyl ester groups was synthesized in a single step through the employment of the Passerini three-component reaction (P-3CR). Both H NMR and MS spectra indicated the successful synthesis of high-purity UVDC, and it was experimentally demonstrated that the synthesized UVDC was capable of degradation under 368 nm light. Furthermore, this UVDC was mixed with 8-arm PEG-thiol (sPEG-(SH)) to promptly yield an UV-degradable hydrogel through a click reaction. The SEM image of the fabricated hydrogel exhibits the favorable crosslinking network of the hydrogel, proving the successful synthesis of the hydrogel. After continuous 368 nm irradiation, the hydrogel showed an obvious gel-sol transition, which demonstrates that the hydrogel possesses a desirable UV-degradable property. In summary, by utilizing solely a two-step reaction devoid of catalysts and hazardous raw materials, UV-degradable hydrogels can be obtained under ambient conditions, which greatly reduces the difficulty of synthesizing light-degradable hydrogels. This work extends the synthetic toolbox for light-degradable hydrogels, enabling their accelerated development.
光降解水凝胶在生物医药领域具有广泛的应用前景。然而，在温和条件下提供一种简便的光降解水凝胶合成方法仍然是研究人员面临的挑战。为了克服这一挑战，本文展示了一种简便的紫外光降解水凝胶合成方法。首先，通过Passerini三组分反应（P-3CR）一步合成了具有硝基苄酯基团的紫外光降解交联剂（UVDC）。1H NMR和MS光谱均表明成功合成了高纯度的UVDC，并且实验证明合成的UVDC能够在368 nm光下发生降解。此外，将这种UVDC与八臂聚乙二醇硫醇（sPEG-(SH)）混合，通过点击反应迅速生成一种紫外光降解水凝胶。制备的水凝胶的扫描电子显微镜图像显示了水凝胶良好的交联网络，证明了水凝胶的成功合成。在368 nm连续照射后，水凝胶表现出明显的凝胶-溶胶转变，这表明该水凝胶具有理想的紫外光降解性能。总之，仅通过两步无催化剂和危险原料的反应，就能在环境条件下获得紫外光降解水凝胶，这大大降低了合成光降解水凝胶的难度。这项工作扩展了光降解水凝胶的合成工具箱，促进了它们的快速发展。
