There is great interest in preparation of hydrogels from polysaccharides. This is understandable; polysaccharides are hydrophilic, biodegradable, typically benign, and have abundant hydroxyl groups which can be used in traditional crosslinking chemistry. But traditional crosslinking chemistry uses small molecule, multifunctional crosslinkers. Such small molecule crosslinkers can be toxic, since they can also crosslink non-target, biological molecules, and since they are nearly impossible to remove quantitatively from hydrogels. This is a large impediment to effective use of sustainable polysaccharides in useful hydrogels.<br/><br/>We will discuss our new chemistry, which permits rapid, inexpensive, and effective synthesis of all-polysaccharide hydrogels using entirely benign materials and green chemistries. These hydrogels have many special and attractive features; they are self-healing, their moduli are readily and simply adjusted to match material needs (such as those of specific tissue types), they are injectable, and their composition provides strong confidence that they will be biodegradable, as well as biocompatible in many situations and applications. These methods are applicable to a wide range of polysaccharides, but herein we will focus on cellulose, dextran, and chitosan and their derivatives as key substrates.<br/><br/>We will further describe simple methods by which these approaches can be adapted to preparation of nanogels. These nanogels have particular promise for an even wider range of applications.

All polysaccharide hydrogels and nanogels by chemoselective synthesis

ACS Spring 2022

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