Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea

Watanabe, Kenta; Miwa, E.; Asai, Fumio; Seki, Takahiro; Urayama, Kenji; Nakatani, Toshiaki; Fujinami, So; Hoshino, Taiki; Takata, Masaki; Liu, Chang; Mayumi, Koichi; Ito, Kohzo; Takeoka, Yukikazu

doi:10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00520

Cited by 22 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…An interesting finding was, that in spite of the periodic fluctuations in nanofiller concentration, which were close to the micrometre scale in the extreme case (see Figure 4 b,e further above), no decrease in optical clarity was observed for the low-filled polyMEA/silica elastomers (see Figure 3 further above). This is in contrast with the results obtained for the distantly related nanocomposite based on PMEO2MA-silica (mentioned in Introduction: Asai, Takeoka and co-workers: [ 67 , 68 ]), where filler particles were much larger (110 nm) and where high optical clarity was observed only for highly regular distributions of the filler spheres. In case of polyMEA/nano-SiO 2 studied in this work, the surprising independence of the nanocomposite transparency from fluctuations of filler distribution can be explained by the close match in the refraction indices of filler and matrix: both are given as 1.46 in the literature (amorphous SiO 2 : [ 70 ], polyMEA: [ 71 ]).…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 89%

“…In spite of the large size of the filler, the elastomers displayed good tensile properties, which interestingly improved (including elongation at break) with rising filler content. In a subsequent study [ 67 ], the same authors embedded the same silica spheres into poly[di(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate] matrix (PMEO2MA) without any chemical crosslinker. PMEO2MA is a brush polymer structurally related to polyMEA, but with much larger side-chains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Novel Tough and Transparent Ultra-Extensible Nanocomposite Elastomers Based on Poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate) and Their Switching between Plasto-Elasticity and Viscoelasticity

et al. 2021

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Novel stiff, tough, highly transparent and ultra-extensible self-assembled nanocomposite elastomers based on poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate) (polyMEA) were synthesized. The materials are physically crosslinked by small in-situ-formed silica nanospheres, sized 3–5 nm, which proved to be a very efficient macro-crosslinker in the self-assembled network architecture. Very high values of yield stress (2.3 MPa), tensile strength (3.0 MPa), and modulus (typically 10 MPa), were achieved in combination with ultra-extensibility: the stiffest sample was breaking at 1610% of elongation. Related nanocomposites doubly filled with nano-silica and clay nano-platelets were also prepared, which displayed interesting synergy effects of the fillers at some compositions. All the nanocomposites exhibit ‘plasto-elastic’ tensile behaviour in the ‘as prepared’ state: they display considerable energy absorption (and also ‘necking’ like plastics), but at the same time a large but not complete (50%) retraction of deformation. However, after the first large tensile deformation, the materials irreversibly switch to ‘real elastomeric’ tensile behaviour (with some creep). The initial ‘plasto-elastic’ stretching thus causes an internal rearrangement. The studied materials, which additionally are valuable due to their high transparency, could be of application interest as advanced structural materials in soft robotics, in implant technology, or in regenerative medicine. The presented study focuses on structure-property relationships, and on their effects on physical properties, especially on the complex tensile, elastic and viscoelastic behaviour of the polyMEA nanocomposites.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Tough and Transparent Ultra-Extensible Nanocomposite Elastomers Based on Poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate) and Their Switching between Plasto-Elasticity and Viscoelasticity

et al. 2021

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“…Recently, we reported a transparent composite elastomer composed of diethylene glycol monomethyl ether methacrylate (PMEO 2 MA) and submicron spherical silica particles, which was inspired by the cornea, which is one of the extracellular matrices. 19 Spherical silica particles were fixed in colloidal crystals in the polymer matrix of this composite elastomer, and increasing the amount of silica significantly improved the strength and strain at break of the composite elastomer. Based on this result, we predicted that PMEA, which has a structure similar to PMEO 2 MA, can be reinforced by the filling of silica particles to obtain a selfsupporting composite elastomer that is blood compatible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Tough and Three-Dimensional-Printable Poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate)–Silica Composite Elastomer with Antiplatelet Adhesion Property

Asai

Seki

Sugawara‐Narutaki

et al. 2020

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate) (PMEA) has attracted attention as a biocompatible polymer that is used as an antithrombotic coating agent for medical devices, such as during artificial heart and lung fabrication. However, PMEA is a viscous liquid polymer with low T g , and its physical strength is poor even if a cross-linker is used, so it is difficult to make tough and freestanding objects from it. Here, we design and fabricate a biocompatible elastomer made of tough, self-supporting PMEA− silica composites. The toughness of the composite elastomer increases as a function of silica particle filling, and its stress at break is improved from 0.3 to 6.7 MPa. The fracture energy of the composite elastomer with 39.5 vol % silica particles is up to 15 times higher than that of the cross-linked PMEA with no silica particles and the material demonstrates stress−strain behavior that is similar to that of biological soft tissue, which exhibits nonlinear elasticity. In addition, the composite elastomer shows the potential to be an antithrombotic property, while the results of the platelet adhesion test of the composite elastomer show that the number of adhered platelets is not significantly affected by the silica addition. As the composite elastomer can be rapidly three-dimensionalprinted into complex geometries with high-resolution features, it is expected to contribute to the development of medical devices from readily available materials.

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“…Bionanocomposites are nanocomposites containing a biological material such as collagen, cellulose, alginate or silk. They have been studied to develop replacement tissues, such as tendon (Yang et al, 2016 ), corneal stroma (Watanabe et al, 2020 ), bone (Raja and Yun, 2016 ) and dermis (Song et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Silk-based Bionanocompositesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silk Polymers and Nanoparticles: A Powerful Combination for the Design of Versatile Biomaterials

et al. 2020

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Silk fibroin (SF) is a natural protein largely used in the textile industry but also in biomedicine, catalysis, and other materials applications. SF is biocompatible, biodegradable, and possesses high tensile strength. Moreover, it is a versatile compound that can be formed into different materials at the macro, micro- and nano-scales, such as nanofibers, nanoparticles, hydrogels, microspheres, and other formats. Silk can be further integrated into emerging and promising additive manufacturing techniques like bioprinting, stereolithography or digital light processing 3D printing. As such, the development of methodologies for the functionalization of silk materials provide added value. Inorganic nanoparticles (INPs) have interesting and unexpected properties differing from bulk materials. These properties include better catalysis efficiency (better surface/volume ratio and consequently decreased quantify of catalyst), antibacterial activity, fluorescence properties, and UV-radiation protection or superparamagnetic behavior depending on the metal used. Given the promising results and performance of INPs, their use in many different procedures has been growing. Therefore, combining the useful properties of silk fibroin materials with those from INPs is increasingly relevant in many applications. Two main methodologies have been used in the literature to form silk-based bionanocomposites: in situ synthesis of INPs in silk materials, or the addition of preformed INPs to silk materials. This work presents an overview of current silk nanocomposites developed by these two main methodologies. An evaluation of overall INP characteristics and their distribution within the material is presented for each approach. Finally, an outlook is provided about the potential applications of these resultant nanocomposite materials.

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Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

Novel Tough and Transparent Ultra-Extensible Nanocomposite Elastomers Based on Poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate) and Their Switching between Plasto-Elasticity and Viscoelasticity

Novel Tough and Transparent Ultra-Extensible Nanocomposite Elastomers Based on Poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate) and Their Switching between Plasto-Elasticity and Viscoelasticity

Tough and Three-Dimensional-Printable Poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate)–Silica Composite Elastomer with Antiplatelet Adhesion Property

Silk Polymers and Nanoparticles: A Powerful Combination for the Design of Versatile Biomaterials

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