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3D Printing of Aniline Tetramer‐Grafted‐Polyethylenimine and Pluronic F127 Composites for Electroactive Scaffolds
Author(s) -
Dong ShiLei,
Han Lu,
Du CaiXia,
Wang XiaoYu,
Li LuHai,
Wei Yen
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201600551
Subject(s) - polyethylenimine , copolymer , materials science , poloxamer , aniline , self healing hydrogels , scaffold , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , polymer , tetramer , composite material , biomedical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , transfection , biochemistry , gene , enzyme , engineering
Electroactive hydrogel scaffolds are fabricated by the 3D‐printing technique using composites of 30% Pluronic F127 and aniline tetramer‐grafted‐polyethylenimine (AT‐PEI) copolymers with various contents from 2.5% to 10%. The synthesized AT‐PEI copolymers can self‐assemble into nanoparticles with the diameter of ≈50 nm and display excellent electroactivity due to AT conjugation. The copolymers are then homogeneously distributed into 30% Pluronic F127 solution by virtue of the thermosensitivity of F127, denoted as F/AT‐PEI composites. Macroscopic photographs of latticed scaffolds elucidate their excellent printability of F/AT‐PEI hydrogels for the 3D‐printing technique. The conductivities of the printed F/AT‐PEI scaffolds are all higher than 2.0 × 10 −3 S cm −1 , which are significantly improved compared with that of F127 scaffold with only 0.94 × 10 −3 S cm −1 . Thus, the F/AT‐PEI scaffolds can be considered as candidates for application in electrical stimulation of tissue regeneration such as repair of muscle and cardiac nerve tissue.