Development of dopant-free conductive bioelastomers

Conductive biodegradable materials are of great interest for various biomedical applications, such as tissue repair and bioelectronics. They generally consist of multiple components, including biodegradable polymer/non-degradable conductive polymer/dopant, biodegradable conductive polymer/dopant or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-09, Vol.6 (1), p.34451, Article 34451
Main Authors: Xu, Cancan, Huang, Yihui, Yepez, Gerardo, Wei, Zi, Liu, Fuqiang, Bugarin, Alejandro, Tang, Liping, Hong, Yi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
13/106
631/61/54/990
631/61/54/993
Additives
Biodegradability
Biodegradable materials
Biodegradation
Degradation products
Fibroblasts
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrolysis
Mechanical properties
multidisciplinary
Polymers
Polyurethane
Science
Tissue engineering
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Summary:Conductive biodegradable materials are of great interest for various biomedical applications, such as tissue repair and bioelectronics. They generally consist of multiple components, including biodegradable polymer/non-degradable conductive polymer/dopant, biodegradable conductive polymer/dopant or biodegradable polymer/non-degradable inorganic additives. The dopants or additives induce material instability that can be complex and possibly toxic. Material softness and elasticity are also highly expected for soft tissue repair and soft electronics. To address these concerns, we designed a unicomponent dopant-free conductive polyurethane elastomer (DCPU) by chemically linking biodegradable segments, conductive segments and dopant molecules into one polymer chain. The DCPU films which had robust mechanical properties with high elasticity and conductivity can be degraded enzymatically and by hydrolysis. It exhibited great electrical stability in physiological environment with charge. Mouse 3T3 fibroblasts survived and proliferated on these films exhibiting good cytocompatibility. Polymer degradation products were non-toxic. DCPU could also be processed into a porous scaffold and in an in vivo subcutaneous implantation model, exhibited good tissue compatibility with extensive cell infiltration over 2 weeks. Such biodegradable DCPU with good flexibility and elasticity, processability and electrical stability may find broad applications for tissue repair and soft/stretchable/wearable bioelectronics.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep34451