Revealing importance of particles' surface functionalization on the properties of magnetic alginate hydrogels

Mariusz Barczak; Piotr Borowski; Cristina Gila-Vilchez; Miguel Alaminos; Fernando González-Caballero; Modesto T López-López

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116747

Revealing importance of particles' surface functionalization on the properties of magnetic alginate hydrogels

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Nov 1:247:116747. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116747. Epub 2020 Jul 13.

Authors

Mariusz Barczak¹, Piotr Borowski², Cristina Gila-Vilchez³, Miguel Alaminos⁴, Fernando González-Caballero³, Modesto T López-López⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Theoretical Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20031, Lublin, Poland. Electronic address: mbarczak@umcs.pl.
² Department of Theoretical Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20031, Lublin, Poland.
³ Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain.
⁴ Tissue Engineering Group, Department of Histology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain.
⁵ Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain. Electronic address: modesto@ugr.es.

PMID: 32829864
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116747

Abstract

Iron/silica core-shell microparticles (IMPs) were functionalized by different functional groups including amine, glycidoxy, phenyl, and thiocyanate. Many of the IMPs modifications are reported for the first time. The resulting surface chemistry turned out to affect the properties of magnetic alginate hydrogels fabricated from sodium alginate and dispersed IMPs. Differences in magnetorheological properties of the obtained magnetic hydrogels can be at least partially attributed to the interactions between alginate and surface functionalities of IMPs. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to get detailed insight into those interactions in order to link them with the observed macroscopic properties of the obtained hydrogels. For example, amine groups on the IMPs surface resulted in well-formed hydrogels while the presence of thiocyanate or phenyl groups - in poorly formed ones. This observation can be used for tuning the properties of various carbohydrate-based hydrogels.

Keywords: Alginate; Biomaterials; Functionalization; Magnetic hydrogels; Magnetic particles; Rheological properties.