Hierarchically Structured Porous Poly(2-oxazoline) Hydrogels

Jodie N Haigh; Ya-Mi Chuang; Brooke Farrugia; Richard Hoogenboom; Paul D Dalton; Tim R Dargaville

doi:10.1002/marc.201500495

Hierarchically Structured Porous Poly(2-oxazoline) Hydrogels

Macromol Rapid Commun. 2016 Jan;37(1):93-99. doi: 10.1002/marc.201500495. Epub 2015 Oct 16.

Authors

Jodie N Haigh¹, Ya-Mi Chuang¹, Brooke Farrugia², Richard Hoogenboom³, Paul D Dalton⁴, Tim R Dargaville¹

Affiliations

¹ Nanotechnology and Molecular Science Discipline, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, 4001, Australia.
² Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia.
³ Supramolecular Chemistry Group, Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S4, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
⁴ Department for Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry, Universität Würzburg, Pleicherwall 2, D97070, Germany.

PMID: 26474191
DOI: 10.1002/marc.201500495

Abstract

A new method for fabricating hydrogels with intricate control over hierarchical 3D porosity using microfiber porogens is presented. Melt electrospinning writing of poly(ε-caprolactone) is used to create the sacrificial template leading to hierarchical structuring consisting of pores inside the denser poly(2-oxazoline) hydrogel mesh. This versatile approach provides new opportunities to create well-defined multilevel control over interconnected pores with diameters in the lower micrometer range inside hydrogels with potential applications as cell scaffolds with tunable diffusion and transport of, e.g., nutrients, growth factors or therapeutics.

Keywords: ;hydrogels; ;melt electrospinning; ;poly(2-oxazoline)s; ;porous materials; fibers.