Nanocellulose, and particularly Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNC), is of high interest for several applications. Biomedical hydrogels are one of these promising applications, especially in the field of injectable hydrogels. In order to create these hydrogels, CNCs are decorated with thermo-responsive polymers. Some previous work shows interesting rheological results but often with “grafting from” chemistry and harsh organic solvents (Like Yaman BOLUK and Justin ZOPPE team). Our proposed approach investigates the creation and characterization of thermo-sensitive bio-compatible, bio-based, and renewable hydrogel suspensions for medical applications. Our approach is advantageous because of the non-use of organic solvents, and is completely aqueous based. These are obtained by adsorption of polymers on CNC by green chemical methods. Well-known for their Low Critical Solution Transition (LCST) at the interface between room and human body temperature, Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (Pnipam) has been chosen for such use. To complete the work, block copolymers PDEGMA-PDMAEMA have been also tested. Physico-chemical interactions with CNC have been investigated by Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), Quartz Cristal microbalance (QCM-d) and Surface Plasmon Resonance (MP-SPR). CNC hydrogel rheological properties and structuration under shear flow present very promising results with similarities between the hydrogel with CNC modified by absorption and previously reported CNC based hydrogels fabricated by “non-green” methods.

Rheological behavior of thermosensitive hydrogel suspensions based on Cellulose Nanocrystals with adsorbed thermo-responsive polymer

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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