Preparation of hydrogels with uniform and gradient chemical structures using dialdehyde cellulose and diamine by aerating ammonia gas

Abstract

Hydrogels with precisely designed structures represent promising materials with a broad application spectrum, such as for sensor, tissue engineering and biomimetic technology. However, with highly reactive compounds, the preparation of hydrogels still needs an efficient approach for desired distribution of each component within hydrogels. In addition, a method for in situ preparation of gradient hydrogels is still lacking. Herein, we report the formation of hydrogels with either uniform or gradient internal structures via a novel, simple but very efficient method by aerating ammonia gas (NH₃ gas) into the solution of dialdehyde cellulose (DAC) and a diamine. As-prepared hydrogels exhibited uniform microscopic and chemical structure or gradient distribution of functional groups. Due to lots of aldehyde groups on DAC chains, functional hydrogels can be prepared by using diverse diamines. For instance, hydrogels prepared by using 1,6-hexanediamine as a cross-linker were responsive to pH values. Moreover, this controllable process of aerating NH₃ gas allows the in situ formation of gradient hydrogels; for instance, by using cyanamide as a reaction counterpart, gradient hydrogels with gradient distributions of cyanide groups were prepared.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

hydrogel / uniform / gradient / dialdehyde cellulose / ammonia gas / diamine

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Acknowledgments

Peiwen Liu thanks the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) for the financial support. The financial support from Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FCI) and the Funding for the Promotion of Young Academics of Georg-August-University of Goettingen are gratefully acknowledged.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-018-1718-7 and is accessible for authorized users.

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