• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.39-50
• /
• 2006

Porous chitosan and chitin membranes were prepared by using silica particles as porogen. Membrane preparation was achieved via the following three steps: (1) chitosan film formation by casting an chitosan solution containing silica particles, (2) preparation of porous chitosan membrane by dissolving the silica particles by immersing the film into an alkaline solution and (3) preparation of porous chitin membrane by acetylation of chitosan membrane with acetic anhydride. The optimum preparation conditions which could provide a chitosan and chitin membranes with good mechanical strength and adequate pure water flux were determined. To allow protein affinity, a reactive dye (Cibacron Blue 3GA) was immobilized on porous chitosan membrane. Binding capacities of affinity chitosan and chitin membranes for protein and enzyme were determined by the batch adsorption experiments of BSA protein and lysozyme enzyme. The maximum binding capacity of affinity chitosan membrane for BSA protein is about 22 mg/mL, and that of affinity chitin membrane for lysozyme enzyme is about 26 mg/mL. Those binding capacities are about $several{\sim}several$ tens times larger than those of chitosan and chitin-based hydrogel beads. Those results suggest that the porous chitosan and chitin membranes are suitable in affinity filtration chromatography for large scale separation of proteins.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.56 no.1
• /
• pp.92-101
• /
• 2012

The degradation of one of the commercially important hydrogel based on acrylic acid and acryl amide, (acrylic acid-co-acryl amide) hydrogels, by means of ultrasound irradiation and its combination with heterogeneous ($TiO_2$) was investigated. 24 kHz of ultrasound irradiation was provided by a sonicator, while an ultraviolet source of 16 W was used for UV irradiation. The extent of sonolytic degradation increased with increasing ultrasound power (in the range 30-80 W). $TiO_2$ sonophotocatalysis led to complete (acrylic acid-co-acryl amide) hydrogels degradation with increasing catalyst loading, while, the presence of $TiO_2$ in the dark generally had little effect on degradation. Therefore, emphasis was totally on the sonolytic and sonophotocatalytic degradation of hydrogels and a synergy effect was calculated for combined degradation procedures (Ultrasound and Ultraviolet) in the presence of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles. $TiO_2$ sonophotocatalysis was always faster than the respective individual processes due to the enhanced formation of reactive radicals as well as the possible ultrasound-induced increase of the active surface area of the catalyst. A kinetics model based on viscosity data was used for estimation of degradation rate constants at different conditions and a negative order for the dependence of the reaction rate on total molar concentration of (acrylic acid-co-acryl amide) hydrogels solution within the degradation process was suggested.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.1025-1031
• /
• 2009

Several kinds of biodegradable hydrogels were prepared via in situ photopolymerization of Pluronic F127/poly($\varepsilon$-caprolactone) macromer and acrylic acid (AA) comonomer in aqueous medium. The swelling kinetics measurements showed that the resultant hydrogels exhibited both thermo- and pH-sensitive behaviors, and that this stimuli-responsiveness underwent a fast reversible process. With increasing pH of the local buffer solutions, the pH sensitivity of the hydrogels was increased, while the temperature sensitivity was decreased. In vitro hydrolytic degradation in the buffer solution (pH 7.4, $37^{\circ}C$), the degradation rate of the hydrogels was greatly improved due to the introduction of the AA comonomer. The in vitro release profiles of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in-situ embedded into the hydrogels were also investigated: the release mechanism of BSA based on the Peppas equation was followed Case II diffusion. Such biodegradable dual-sensitive hydrogel materials may have more advantages as a potentially interesting platform for smart drug delivery carriers and tissue engineering scaffolds.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.182-189
• /
• 2012

In this study, poloxamer hydrogels were prepared by electron beam irradiation and evaluated for potential application as a buccal mucoadhesive drug delivery system. Poloxamer, one of typical thermoresponsive polymers, was modified to have vinyl end groups for crosslinking reaction, and its hydrogels were fabricated by irradiation crosslinking reaction. Carbopol as a mucoadhesive polymeric additive was introduced to improve the mucoadhesive property of the hydrogels and its effect on the mucoadhesion and drug release properties was investigated. The results showed that the end group modification of poloxamer and the addition of carbopol improved mucoadhesive force and mechanical properties and led to a sustained drug release behavior.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.518-521
• /
• 2005

Biodegradable polymers and hydrogels have been increasingly applied in a variety of biomedical applications including current drug delivery system and tissue engineering field. ${\alpha},\;{\beta}-Poly$(N-2-hydroxyethyl-DL-aspart-amide), PHEA. is one of poly(amino acids) with hydroxyethyl pendants, which is hewn to be biodegradable and potentially biocompatible. So that, the utilization and various chemical modifications of PHEA have been attempted for useful biomedical applications. In this wort chemical gels based on PHEA were prepared by crosslinking with diisocyanate compound in DMF in the presence of catalyst. Here, the PHEA was prepared from polysuccinimde, the thermal polycondensation product of aspartic acid, via ring-opening reaction with ethanolamine. The preparation of gels and their swelling behavior, depending on the different medium and pH, were investigated. Also the morphology by SEM and simple hydrolytic degradation were observed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.63-68
• /
• 2004

Sugar-based gelator p-dodecanoyl-aminophenyl- ${\beta}$-D-aldopyranosides (1-3) have been shown to self-assemble in the presence of p-aminophenyl aldopyranosides. The hydrogel 1+4 showed the double-helical structure with 3-25 nm outer diameters, which is quite different from that of 1. The gel 2+5 revealed twisted ribbon structure with 30-50 nm in widths and a few micrometers of length whereas the gel 3+4 revealed the single and the bundled fiber structures. The difference in these gel supramolecular structures has successfully been transcribed into silica structures by sol-gel polymerization of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), resulting in the doublehelical, the twisted-ribbon, the single and the multiple (lotus-shaped) hollow fiber structures. These results indicate that novel silica structures can be created by transcription of various superstructures formed in binary gels through the hydrogen-bonding interaction, and the amino group of the p-aminophenyl aldopyranosides acts as an efficient driving force to create novel silica nanotubes. Furthermore, electron energy-loss spectroscopy (ELLS) provided strong evidence for the inner hollow structure of the double-helical silica nanotube. This is a novel and successful example that a variety of new silica structures can be created using a library of carbohydrate gel fibers as their templates.

• Advances in biomechanics and applications
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.41-55
• /
• 2014

Acellular intra-myocardial biomaterial injections have been shown to be therapeutically beneficial in inhibiting ventricular remodelling of myocardial infarction (MI). Based on a biventricular canine cardiac geometry, various finite element models were developed that comprised an ischemic (II) or scarred infarct (SDI) in left ventricular (LV) antero-apical region, without and with intra-myocardial biomaterial injectate in layered (L) and bulk (B) distribution. Changes in myocardial properties and LV geometry were implemented corresponding to infarct stage (tissue softening vs. stiffening, infarct thinning, and cavity dilation) and injectate (infarct thickening). The layered and bulk injectate increased ejection fraction of the infarcted LV by 77% (II+L) and 25% (II+B) at the ischemic stage and by 61% (SDI+L) and 63% (SDI+B) at the remodelling stage. The injectates decreased the mean end-systolic myofibre stress in the infarct by 99% (II+L), 97% (II+B), 70% (SDI+L) and 36% (SDI+B). The bulk injectate was slightly more effective in improving LV function at the remodelling stage whereas the layered injectate was superior in functional improvement at ischemic stage and in reduction of wall stress at ischemic and remodelling stage. These findings may stimulate and guide further research towards tailoring acellular biomaterial injectate therapies for MI.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.558-564
• /
• 2011

The biocompatibility and biodegradability of poly(amino acid) make them ideal candidates for many bio-related applications. Poly(aspartic acid), PASP, is one of synthetic water-soluble polymers with proteinlike structure, and has been extensively explored for the potential industrial and biomedical applications due to its biodegradable, biocompatible and pH-responsive properties. In this work, amino acid-conjugated PASPs were prepared by aminolysis reaction onto polysuccinimide (PSI) using ${\gamma}$-aminobutylic acid(GABA) and ${\beta}$-alanine methyl ester and a subsequent hydrolysis process. Their chemical gels were prepared by crosslinking reaction with ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE). The hydrogels were investigated for their basic swelling behavior, hydrolytic degradation and morphology. The crosslinked gels showed a responsive swelling behavior, which was dependent on pH and salt concentration in aqueous solution, and relatively fast hydrolytic degradation.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.761-765
• /
• 2010

Poly (N,N-dimethylacrylamide) is very useful in various fields due to its remarkable properties, such as water solubility and biocompatibility. This study used N,N-dimethylacrylamide with the cross-linker EGDMA (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate), HEMA (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), MMA (methyl methacrylate), NVP (N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) and the initiator AIBN (azobisisobutyronitrile) for copolymerization. Measurement of the physical properties of the copolymerized polymer showed that the water content was 36 - 42%, refractive index was 1.433 - 1.426 and visible ray transmittance 90 - 91% while the oxygen permeability showed a distribution between 13.1 and $21.29{\times}10^{-11}(cm^2/sec)$ ($mlO_2/mL{\times}mmHg$). The measurement showed that the increased amount of oxygen permeability of the copolymer measured using the polarographic method range between 11.0% and 80.5%. Based on the results of this study, the produced copolymer is suitable for use as a material to high oxygen permeability hydrogel lenses.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.223-228
• /
• 2012

Temperature and pH sensitive graft copolymers [Pluronic-$g$-poly(NIPAAm-$co$-MMA), Polymer A] and [Pluronic-$g$-poly( NIPAAm-$co$-MAA), Polymer C] were synthesized by macro radical graft polymerization with $N$-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAM)/$N,N$-diethylaminoethylmethacrylate (DEAEMA) and $N$-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm)/methacrylic acid (MAA) based on Pluronic, respectively. The chemical structure and molecular weight of the graft copolymers was characterized by $^1H$ NMR and gel permeation chromatography. The aqueous solution properties of graft copolymers were measured using a UV-visible spectrophotometer, contact angle and dynamic light scattering equipment with different temperature and pH conditions. The obtained graft copolymers showed a very sensitive phase transition in response to temperature and pH in aqueous media which suggested that the amine group of DEAEMA segment and carboxylic group of MAA had a great influence on the lower critical solution temperatures (LCST) in Polymer A and C, respectively. The graft copolymers can be utilized for drug delivery system and molecular switching applications where responses to temperature and pH changes are relevant.