Recently, there has been increasing interest in physically crosslinked hydrogels due to their ability to gel under mild, aqueous conditions in the absence of chemical crosslinkers.1 Although chemically crosslinked gels tend to have better mechanical properties than their physically crosslinked counterparts, the toxicity associated with residual chemical crosslinkers and organic solvents is highly undesirable for biomedical applications.2 Some of the most robust physical hydrogels have been achieved by introducing stereocomplexed domains into the hydrogel network. The stereocomplexation between poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly(D-lactic acid) (PDLA) is one such example.3,4 Double-crystalline PDLA-b-PEO-b-PDLA triblock copolymers5served as our inspiration to synthesize a new material with potential applications in hydrogel drug delivery. The synthesis and characterization of this new double-crystalline material will be presented.(1) Hennink, W. E.; van Nostrum, C. F. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 2012  , 64, 223.(2) Annabi, N.; Tamayol, A.; Uquillas, J. A.; Akbari, M.; Bertassoni, L. E.; Cha, C.; Camci-Unal, G.; Dokmeci, M. R.; Peppas, N. A.; Khademhosseini, A. Adv. Mater. (Weinheim, Ger.) 2014  , 26, 85.(3) Slager, J.; Domb, A. J. Adv. Drug Delivery Rev. 2003  , 55, 549.(4) Brochu, S.; Prud'homme, R. E.; Barakat, I.; Jerome, R. Macromolecules 1995  , 28, 5230.(5) Fujiwara, T.; Mukose, T.; Yamaoka, T.; Yamane, H.; Sakurai, S.; Kimura, Y. Macromol. Biosci. 2001  , 1, 204.

New double-crystalline block copolymers

248th National Meeting (2014)

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