Adhesive and Self-Healing Polyurethanes with Tunable Multifunctionality

Abstract

Many polyurethanes (PUs) are blood-contacting materials due to their good mechanical properties, fatigue resistance, cytocompatibility, biosafety, and relatively good hemocompatibility. Further functionalization of the PUs using chemical synthetic methods is especially attractive for expanding their applications. Herein, a series of catechol functionalized PU (C-PU-PTMEG) elastomers containing variable molecular weight of polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG) soft segment are reported by stepwise polymerization and further introduction of catechol. Tailoring the molecular weight of PTMEG fragment enables a regulable catechol content, mobility of the chain segment, hydrogen bond and microphase separation of the C-PU-PTMEG elastomers, thus offering tunability of mechanical strength (such as breaking strength from 1.3 MPa to 5.7 MPa), adhesion, self-healing efficiency (from 14.9% to 96.7% within 2 hours), anticoagulant, antioxidation, anti-inflammatory properties and cellular growth behavior. As cardiovascular stent coatings, the C-PU-PTMEGs demonstrate enough flexibility to withstand deformation during the balloon dilation procedure. Of special importance is that the C-PU-PTMEG-coated surfaces show the ability to rapidly scavenge free radicals to maintain normal growth of endothelial cells, inhibit smooth muscle cell proliferation, mediate inflammatory response, and reduce thrombus formation. With the universality of surface adhesion and tunable multifunctionality, these novel C-PU-PTMEG elastomers should find potential usage in artificial heart valves and surface engineering of stents.

Bionic Adhesion Systems: From Natural Design to Artificial Application

“…Small radius and high aspect ratio fiber arrays allow for greater adhesion: depending on the size limitation, reducing the fiber diameter can significantly enhance adhesion, as also demonstrated in reference, [ 134 ] where high aspect ratio fiber arrays facilitated greater adhesion. [ 141 ] At the same time, the theorical and experimental conclusions prove that the existence of the tilt angle is necessary to effectively reduce the Young's modulus.…”

“…helps to improve and stabilize their mechanical properties and extend the service life of the devices. [ 134 ] As can be observed from Table 1, catechol‐based chemical bonding adhesives can also be used for the development of bioactive membranes, such as cartilage tissues and artificial kidneys. Additionally, chemical bonding adhesives based on pyrogallol, or other phenolic molecules can also achieve superior adhesion in humid environments.…”

Allicin-Loaded Intelligent Hydrogel Coating Improving Vascular Implant Performance

“…In recent years, there have been many studies on the coating of vascular stent, and it has exhibited a good therapeutic effect . Hydrogels are widely studied in the biomedical field because of their three-dimensional network structure which is conducive to cell growth .…”

Quantification Characterization of Hierarchical Structure of Polyurethane by Advanced AFM and X-ray Techniques

“…Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) enables an indirect analysis by detecting the degree of hydrogen bonding of carbonyl groups, offering insight into the microphase separation. 30,31 Smallangle X-ray scattering (SAXS) utilizes X-ray scattering to determine the material's electron density distribution, allowing for the determination of microdomain spacing using the Bragg equation. 32,33 This technique provides insights into the degree of phase separation in PU.…”

“…Various characterization techniques have been employed to investigate the microstructure of PU. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) enables an indirect analysis by detecting the degree of hydrogen bonding of carbonyl groups, offering insight into the microphase separation. , Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) utilizes X-ray scattering to determine the material’s electron density distribution, allowing for the determination of microdomain spacing using the Bragg equation. , This technique provides insights into the degree of phase separation in PU . However, neither FTIR nor SAXS yields directly relevant parameters for microphase separation as they mainly provide intuitively morphological information.…”