Collagen is a widely used biomaterial in cardiac tissue engineering studies. However, as a natural material, it suffers from variability between batches that can complicate the standardization of culture conditions. In contrast, synthetic materials are modifiable, have well-defined structures and more homogeneous batches can be produced. In this study, several collagen-like synthetic self-assem...

Polyacrylic acid/ octavinyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane, nanocomposite hydrogel with 3-D network was synthesized via radical polymerization. Octavinyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane was used as crosslinker and nanofiller simultaneously in the preparation of the hydrogel. Hydrogel adsorption performance was determined by adsorption of methylene blue. The adsorption capacity was ev...

Hydrogel nanocomposites containing silver nanoparticles of size 15–21 nm were prepared by diffusion and in-situ chemical reduction in chemically crosslinked polymers based on N-acryloyl-N′-ethyl piperazine (AcrNEP) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM). The polymer chains of the hydrogel network offered control and stabilization of silver nanoparticles without the need for additional stabilizers. T...

We developed a new photonic crystal hydrogel material based on the biocompatible polymer poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), which can be reversibly dehydrated and rehydrated, without the use of additional fillers, while retaining the diffraction and swelling properties of polymerized crystalline colloidal arrays (PCCA). This chemically modified PVA hydrogel photonic crystal efficiently diffracts light...

The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate multiparticulates of alginate and chitosan hydrogel beads exploiting pH sensitive property for colon-targeted delivery of theophylline. Alginate and chitosan beads were prepared by ionotropic gelation method followed by enteric coating with Eudragit S100. All formulations were evaluated for particle size, encapsulation efficiency, swellab...

A unique pH-dependent phase behavior from a copolymer micellar solution to a collapsed hydrogel with micelles ordered in a hexagonal phase was observed. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) was used to follow the pH-dependent structural evolution of micelles formed in a solution of a pentablock copolymer consisting of poly((diethylaminoethyl methacrylate)-b-(ethylene oxide)-b-(propylene oxide)...

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have UV-visible absorption spectra that are highly sensitive to their local environment due to their surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Furthermore, GNPs are able to quench the fluorescence of suitable dyes depending on the GNP-dye separation. Both of these features have led to the use of GNPs as spectroscopic rulers. In this study we sought to use GNPs as spectroscopic ...

Proteolytic resistance is a relevant aspect to be tested in the formulation of new nanoscale biomaterials. The action of proteolytic enzymes is a very fast process occurring in the range of few minutes. Here, we report data concerning the proteolytic resistance of a heat-set BSA hydrogel obtained after 20-hour incubation at 60 °C prepared at the pH value of 3.9, pH at which the hydrogel present...

A novel polypeptide hydrogel has been synthesized by crosslinking poly(L-glutamic acid) (PLG) with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The PLG-PEG hydrogel was shown to be highly hydrophilic, and the extent of swelling varied with pH, increasing at higher ionization of the PLG. Aside from electrostatic effects, such as ion-ion repulsion and internal ion osmotic pressure, circular dichroism studies sho...

Microgels are important materials for both basic science and engineering and have wide applications from the study of phase transitions to the delivery of drugs. These micron and sub-micron particles, made of hydrogel materials, respond to solvent conditions. The most common microgels are environmentally sensitive, responding to temperature and pH. Our material of interest, poly (N-isopropylacr...