Tough Polyelectrolyte Hydrogels with Antimicrobial Property via Incorporation of Natural Multivalent Phytic Acid

Abstract

Tough and antimicrobial dual-crosslinked poly((trimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate chloride)-phytic acid hydrogel (pTMAEMA-PA) has been synthesized by adding a chemical crosslinker and docking a physical crosslinker of multivalent phytic acid into a cationic polyelectrolyte network. By increasing the loading concentration of PA, the tough hydrogel exhibits compressive stress of >1 MPa, along with high elasticity and fatigue-resistant properties. The enhanced mechanical properties of pTMAEMA-PA stem from the multivalent ion effect of PA via the formation of ion bridges within polyelectrolytes. In addition, a comparative study for a series of pTMAEMA-counterion complexes was conducted to elaborate the relationship between swelling ratio and mechanical strength. The study also revealed secondary factors, such as ion valency, ion specificity and hydrogen bond formation, holding crucial roles in tuning mechanical properties of the polyelectrolyte hydrogel. Furthermore, in bacteria attachment and disk diffusion tests, pTMAEMA-PA exhibits superior fouling resistance and antibacterial capability. The results reflect the fact that PA enables chelating strongly with divalent metal ions, hence, disrupting the outer membrane of bacteria, as well as dysfunction of organelles, DNA and protein. Overall, the work demonstrated a novel strategy for preparation of tough polyelectrolyte with antibacterial capability via docking PA to open up the potential use of PA in medical application.

Re-entrant swelling and redissolution of polyelectrolytes arises from an increased electrostatic decay length at high salt concentrations

“…Here the re-entrant swelling was induced by the thiocyanate ion, but not by chloride, acetate or perchlorate ions [57]. The reswelling of polyelectrolyte gels in monovalent salts has also been observed experimentally in the presence of LiCl (Figure 2d) [64] and NaCl [65] and has also been shown in theoretical work that includes the effect of ion-ion correlations [43].…”

Preparation of Synthetic Polypeptide–PolyHIPE Hydrogels with Stimuli-Responsive Behavior

“…The compression could be repeated several times without showing any damage to the samples. P­(Glu- co -Lys), on the other hand, recovered only to 83.8% of its original height and shows a pronounced hysteresis probably due to a reversible disassembly and reassembly of the physical cross-links. , This effect is more pronounced at slower loading and unloading rates as this gave the physical network more time to rearrange. On the other hand, P­(Glu- co -Lys) shows a similar unloading behavior as P­(Glu) and P­(Glu- co -Phe) when a higher compression rate is used.…”

Phytic Acid: Properties and Potential Applications in Dentistry

“…The effect of IP6 on the characteristics of polyelectrolyte hydrogel, a tissue engineering scaffold, was studied. It was concluded that IP6 produced a hydrogel scaffold with improved mechanical properties and antimicrobial capability (Bui and Huang, 2019). Several other researchers reported enhanced characteristics of biocements with the use of IP6; however, its effect on the setting time is dependent on several factors that are beyond the scope of this review (Horiguchi et al, 2008;Konishi et al, 2012;Christel et al, 2015;Medvecky et al, 2020).…”