Conducting polymer hydrogels have been prepared using PEDOT:PSS and partially replacing PSS dopant by alginate. The selected hydrogel, which is self-healable and re-utilizable, has been used as pressure sensor with good spatial resolution.
Stimuli-responsive biomaterials have attracted significant attention for the construction of on-demand drug release systems. The possibility of using external stimulation to trigger drug release is particularly enticing for hydrophobic compounds, which are not easily released by simple diffusion. In this work, an electrochemically active hydrogel, which has been prepared by gelling a mixture of poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and alginate (Alg), has been loaded with curcumin (CUR), a hydrophobic drug with a wide spectrum of clinical applications. The PEDOT/Alg hydrogel is electrochemically active and organizes as segregated PEDOT-and Alg-rich domains, explaining its behaviour as an electroresponsive drug delivery system. When loaded with CUR, the hydrogel demonstrates a controlled drug release upon application of a negative electrical voltage.Comparison with the release profiles obtained applying a positive voltage and in absence of electrical stimuli, indicates that the release mechanism dominating this system is complex due not only to the intermolecular interactions between the drug and the polymeric network but also to the loading of a hydrophobic drug in a water-containing delivery system.
Multifunctional hydrogels are a class of materials offering new opportunities for interfacing living organisms with machines due to their mechanical compliance, biocompatibility, and capacity to be triggered by external stimuli. Here, we report a dual magnetic- and electric-stimuli-responsive hydrogel with the capacity to be disassembled and reassembled up to three times through reversible cross-links. This allows its use as an electronic device (e.g., temperature sensor) in the cross-linked state and spatiotemporal control through narrow channels in the disassembled state via the application of magnetic fields, followed by reassembly. The hydrogel consists of an interpenetrated polymer network of alginate (Alg) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), which imparts mechanical and electrical properties, respectively. In addition, the incorporation of magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) endows the hydrogel with magnetic properties. After structural, (electro)chemical, and physical characterization, we successfully performed dynamic and continuous transport of the hydrogel through disassembly, transporting the polymer–Fe3O4 NP aggregates toward a target using magnetic fields and its final reassembly to recover the multifunctional hydrogel in the cross-linked state. We also successfully tested the PEDOT/Alg/Fe3O4 NP hydrogel for temperature sensing and magnetic hyperthermia after various disassembly/re-cross-linking cycles. The present methodology can pave the way to a new generation of soft electronic devices with the capacity to be remotely transported.
Electrochemical capacitors (ECs) are currently considered as advanced devices for applications in electrical vehicles and renewable energy owing to their high power density, high rate capability, exceptional durability, and reversibility compared to conventional capacitors and Li-ion batteries. [1] ECs are classified into two groups: (i) electrical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), which store the electric charge using reversible adsorption of ions from the electrolyte onto the electrode surface; and (ii) redox or pseudocapacitors, which use fast and reversible faradaic reactions occurring at the electrode-electrolyte interface. ECs are commonly fabricated using inorganic/organic hybrid materials, such as metal nanoparticles/ nanowires (e.g., Ag, Cu), metal oxides (e.g., MnO 2 , RuO 2 ), and carbon materials (CNT, graphene) dispersed in conductive or nonconductive polymers. [2] On the other hand, in recent years, ECs have become important elements for flexible and wearable electronic devices, which are playing important roles in fields like health monitoring, artificial intelligence, sensory skin, or soft robotics. To date, many wearable devices have been successfully developed to monitor, for example, heart beat rate, glucose content in sweat, or body temperature, [3] all them requiring soft, flexible, lightweight, and comfortable energy storage systems. Within this context, ECs based on polymeric systems are particularly attractive as, in addition to the abovementioned properties, polymers can also incorporate new functionalities, such as being biocompatible, conformable, self-healing, and sustainable, to fulfill special demands. [4,5] Conducting polymer (CP)based hydrogels are ideal candidates for use in flexible ECs owing to their unique properties such as good electronic properties, tunable mechanical flexibility, and ease of processing. [4,6] In addition, hydrogel materials may have remarkable biological characteristics (e.g., self-adhesive and antimicrobial activity) for biomedical applications. [7] While many works are available in the literature about combining conducting and synthetic polymers to form hydrogels for energy storage devices, studies related to the synergistic effect between CPs and biopolymers are scarce yet. For example, lightweight hydrogels based on the macromolecular One limitation of wearable electronics, and at the same time a challenge, is the lack of energy storage devices with multiple functionalities produced using clean and environmental-friendly strategies. Here, a multifunctional conductive hydrogel containing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and alginate is fabricated, to be used as electrodes in supercapacitors, by applying water-mediated self-assembly and polymerization processes at room temperature. The interpenetration of both polymers allows the combination of flexibility and self-healing properties within the same hydrogel together with the intrinsic biocompatibility and sustainability of such materials. Initially, PEDOT:polystyrene sulfonate and alginate a...
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