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New Sol‐Gel Transition Hydrogels Based on Pluronic‐Mimicking Copolymers Grafted with Oligo(lactic acids)
Author(s) -
Lee Yuhan,
Park Sung Young,
Chung Hyun Jung,
Park Tae Gwan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.200750322
Subject(s) - copolymer , poloxamer , ethylene oxide , micelle , self healing hydrogels , polymer chemistry , propylene oxide , materials science , chemical engineering , glass transition , aqueous solution , chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering
A novel type of poly(ethylene oxide)‐poly(propylene oxide)‐poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO‐PPO‐PEO) triblock copolymers grafted with oligo( D , L ‐lactic acid) (OLA) on the middle PPO segment was synthesized. The Pluronic‐mimicking copolymers exhibited gel‐to‐sol transitions with increasing temperature over a wide range of copolymer concentrations, and formed more stable hydrogel structures than Pluronic F127 copolymer in aqueous solution. The gel‐to‐sol phase transition temperature was controllable depending on chain length of the grafted OLA on the PPO chain. The gel‐to‐sol transition occurring with raising temperature was attributed to thermal destabilization and expansion of the inner hydrophobic core, which disturbed the packing order of spherical micelles required for physical gelation. The OLA grafted Pluronic mimicking hydrogels not only showed highly retarded erosion at 37 °C but also sustained protein release profiles, compared to Pluronic F127 hydrogel.