Lin Fengcai, Lin Wenyan, Chen Jingwen, Sun Chenyi, Zheng Xiaoxiao, Xu Yanlian, Lu Beili, Chen Jipeng, Huang Biao
Fujian Engineering and Research Center of New Chinese Lacquer Materials, College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
College of Material Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Oct 15;15(20):4092. doi: 10.3390/polym15204092.
Nanocellulose hydrogels are a crucial category of soft biomaterials with versatile applications in tissue engineering, artificial extracellular matrices, and drug-delivery systems. In the present work, a simple and novel method, involving the self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) induced by tannic acid (TA), was developed to construct a stable hydrogel (SH-CNC/TA) with oriented porous network structures. The gelation process is driven by the H-bonding interaction between the hydroxyl groups of CNCs and the catechol groups of TA, as substantiated by the atoms in molecules topology analysis and FTIR spectra. Interestingly, the assembled hydrogels exhibited a tunable hierarchical porous structure and mechanical moduli by varying the mass ratio of CNCs to TA. Furthermore, these hydrogels also demonstrate rapid self-healing ability due to the dynamic nature of the H-bond. Additionally, the structural stability of the SH-CNC/TA hydrogel could be further enhanced and adjusted by introducing coordination bonding between metal cations and TA. This H-bonding driven self-assembly method may promote the development of smart cellulose hydrogels with unique microstructures and properties for biomedical and other applications.
纳米纤维素水凝胶是一类重要的软生物材料，在组织工程、人工细胞外基质和药物递送系统等方面具有广泛应用。在本研究中，开发了一种简单新颖的方法，即通过单宁酸（TA）诱导纤维素纳米晶体（CNCs）自组装，构建具有定向多孔网络结构的稳定水凝胶（SH-CNC/TA）。分子中的原子拓扑分析和傅里叶变换红外光谱证实，凝胶化过程由CNCs的羟基与TA的邻苯二酚基团之间的氢键相互作用驱动。有趣的是，通过改变CNCs与TA的质量比，组装而成的水凝胶呈现出可调的分级多孔结构和机械模量。此外，由于氢键的动态性质，这些水凝胶还表现出快速的自愈能力。此外，通过引入金属阳离子与TA之间的配位键，可以进一步增强和调节SH-CNC/TA水凝胶的结构稳定性。这种氢键驱动的自组装方法可能会促进具有独特微观结构和性能的智能纤维素水凝胶在生物医学及其他领域的发展。
