A high water-content and high elastic dual-responsive polyurethane hydrogel for drug delivery
Journal of Materials Chemistry B (2015), 3(42), 8401-8409.
Li Jinze, Ma Li, Chen Guangxin, Zhou Zheng, Li Qifang
Abstract: Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are soft, biocompatible and **art biomaterials; however, the poor mech. properties of the hydrogels limit their application. Herein, we prepd. a reductant- and light-responsive polyurethane hydrogel which was made of polyethylene glycol, 1,6-diisocyanatohexane, azobenzene, cyclodextrin and disulfide. Attenuated Total Reflectance IR Spectra and 1H NMR were used to characterize the structure of the hydrogel. The hydrogel has a high elasticity (a tensile modulus of 36.5 ± 0.5 kPa and a storage modulus of 52.9 ± 1.2 kPa) at a high water content (91.2 ± 0.4%). Swelling, mech. and rheol. properties of the hydrogel can be tuned by the content of the crosslinker, light and reductant. The hydrogel has low cytotoxicity and it can be used for drug delivery. UV irradn. helped to load drugs and the reductant accelerated the drug release. With its high mech. properties and light- and reductant-responsiveness, the hydrogel is hopefully to be used as a drug carrier.
