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Fabricating Degradable Thermoresponsive Hydrogels on Multiple Length Scales via Reactive Extrusion, Microfluidics, Self-assembly, and Electrospinning

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Reversible thermosensitive biodegradable polymeric actuators based on confined crystallization.

Vladislav Stroganov¹, Mahmoud Al-Hussein, Jens-Uwe Sommer

¹Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. , Hohe Strasse 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany.

|February 5, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers discovered a novel reversible actuation effect in ultrathin polymer films. This "crystallization memory effect" in polycaprolactone-gelatin films enables biodegradable actuators for bionano-technology.

Keywords:

Reversible actuators confined crystallization polycaprolactone stimuli-responsive thermoresponsive

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Polymer Science
Bionanotechnology

Background:

Ultrathin semicrystalline polymer films exhibit complex behaviors.
Developing biodegradable actuators is crucial for advanced applications.

Purpose of the Study:

To discover and characterize a new effect of reversible actuation in ultrathin semicrystalline polymer films.
To explore the potential of this effect for bionano-technological applications.

Main Methods:

Demonstration on polycaprolactone-gelatin bilayer films.
Investigating the role of polymer melting and crystallization.
Hypothesizing the mechanism based on chain orientation and crystallization memory.

Main Results:

Ultrathin polycaprolactone-gelatin films exhibit reversible folding and unfolding with temperature changes.
Actuation is driven by the reversible switching of polycaprolactone structure upon melting and crystallization.
A 'crystallization memory effect' due to oriented polycaprolactone chains is proposed as the mechanism.

Conclusions:

A novel reversible actuation effect in ultrathin semicrystalline polymer films was discovered.
This effect, based on a 'crystallization memory effect', enables the design of biodegradable thermoresponsive actuators.
Potential applications include reversible cell encapsulation and micro-swimmers in bionano-technology.