Synthetic polymer gels are a platform class of soft materials, whose viscoelasticity has enabled numerous technologies: from absorbents, contact lenses and biomedical implants, to scaffolds for tissue engineering, cell cultures, and drug delivery. Yet, despite their utility, synthetic polymer gels don’t yet rival the functional sophistication of biogenic polymer gels like mucous, cartilage, and the extracellular matrix. What these biogenic gels possess that synthetic polymer gels typically lack is dynamic and multi-tier structural hierarchy. In an effort to advance synthetic polymer gels in this regard, we set out to explore polymer metal-organic-cage (polyMOC) gels, whose junctions are nanoscopic cages formed via the dynamic subcomponent self-assembly of polymer end-groups with metal ions: specifically, poly(ethylene glycol) terminated with bis-pyridine ligands and Pd<sup>2+</sup>. The present discussion will begin to unravel the complex hierarchical network structure and dynamics in these polyMOC gels, as well as elucidate the effects of polymer size and architecture and absolute junction stoichiometry on the network structure and the resulting mechanical properties of the gels.

Network structure-property relationships in polymer metal-organic-cage gels

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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