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Humidity‐Triggered Self‐Healing of Microporous Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Coatings for Hydrophobic Drug Delivery
Author(s) -
Chen XiaChao,
Ren KeFeng,
Zhang JiaHui,
Li DanDan,
Zhao Emily,
Zhao Zhong Jonathon,
Xu ZhiKang,
Ji Jian
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201503258
Subject(s) - polyelectrolyte , materials science , microporous material , drug delivery , polyethylenimine , chemical engineering , acrylic acid , coating , polymer , nanotechnology , triclosan , surface modification , composite material , copolymer , chemistry , medicine , pathology , engineering , gene , transfection , biochemistry
Layer‐by‐layer (LbL) self‐assemblies have inherent potential as dynamic coatings because of the sensitivity of their building blocks to external stimuli. Here, humidity serves as a feasible trigger to activate the self‐healing of a microporous polyethylenimine/poly(acrylic acid) multilayer film. Microporous structures within the polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) film are created by acid treatment, followed by freeze‐drying to remove water. The self‐healing of these micropores can be triggered at 100% relative humidity, under which condition the mobility of the polyelectrolytes is activated. Based on this, a facile and versatile method is suggested for directly integrating hydrophobic drugs into PEM films for surface‐mediated drug delivery. The high porosity of microporous film enables the highest loading (≈303.5 μg cm −2 for a 15‐bilayered film) of triclosan to be a one‐shot process via wicking action and subsequent solvent removal, thus dramatically streamlining the processes and reducing complexities compared to the existing LbL strategies. The self‐healing of a drug‐loaded microporous PEM film significantly reduces the diffusion coefficient of triclosan, which is favorable for the long‐term sustained release of the drug. The dynamic properties of this polymeric coating provide great potential for its use as a delivery platform for hydrophobic drugs in a wide variety of biomedical applications.