Hydrogels are crosslinked polymers that can reversibly absorb and release large amounts of water. They fall into the category of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) and are used in industry for coal dewatering, diapers, and food additives among other things. Current hydrogel research is largely focused on developing this technology for medical applications such as 3D printing artificial human tissue and controlled drug release. Going one step further, we will be engineering a hydrogel that is biocompatible, mechanically strong, and electrically conductive as well as porous and superabsorbent. This material could then be used for biocompatible electronics or electrically conductive implants, which could replicate nerve activity. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been accomplished to date with an interpenetrated network. The mechanical strength of biocompatible hydrogels is often a limiting factor in their design. To create a mechanically strong biocompatible hydrogel, a cellulose/alginate network was interpenetrated with an acrylate network. This effectively increased the crosslink density of the resulting interpenetrated network (IPN) without decreasing the elasticity. This IPN also showed significant mechanical strength improvements while still maintaining a high swelling ratio. Also, more uniform porosity was shown to be obtained through sequential network synthesis. This uniform porosity came at the expense of higher mechanical strength, which simultaneous synthesis obtained. The interpenetrate network polymer from above will next be made conductive. This is to be done through dispersing carbon nanotubes in the IPN, creating a conductive composite. By using carbon nanotubes, the volume fraction at percolation is quite minimal. This will create a conductive composite without losing the elasticity or high swelling ratio of the resulting polymer. This conductive composite will then be shown to 3D print conductive, strong, and biocompatible cell scaffolds for human tissue or biocompatible electronics.

Conductive hydrogels for use in tissue engineering and biocompatible electronics

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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