Biomimetic hydrogel materials have become of great interest in many disciplines of research due to their fluid uptake capacity, tensile strength, non-cytotoxicity, and biodegradability. These supramolecular composites are typically comprised of naturally derived polymers such as alginate as well as cross-linking agents which arrange themselves non-covalently providing structural tunability to the final composite. This research will attempt to decode critical interactions of alginate with biomimetic cross-linking agents such as sugars and amino acids. It has been determined that the incorporation of structurally diverse amino acid-Ca<sup>2+</sup> complexes into the alginate backbone, macromolecularly alter the pore structure, driving the overall efficacy of the hydrogel matrix. As the concentration and hydrodynamic radius of the additive was increased, there was a significant decrease in the pore size via increased non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking. This attributed to a resultant decrease in the initial rate of swell in the presence of aqueous media due to capillary forces within the hydrogel composite. The pore size-tunability is directly correlated with the materials ability to swell due to an inverse relationship between the cross-linking density and degree of swelling (DOS). One such example, at a fixed additive concentration phenylalanine exhibited an initial swell rate of ~279.5%/min, and glycine had a swell rate of ~436.9%/min. Their corresponding pore sizes were 1.72μm and 5.31μm, respectively. Furthermore, although the structural properties of the material can be finely tuned based on the biomimetic additive (amino acid or sugar), all resultant hydrogels were found to proliferate cell growth of adult human dermal fibroblasts.

Effect of biomimetic additives on pore structure modulation in alginate-based hydrogels for applications in wound management materials

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.