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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 2: Focus: Field Controllable Functional Polymers I

CPP 2.5: Vortrag

Montag, 16. März 2015, 10:45–11:00, C 264

Reversible thermosensitive biodegradable polymeric actuators driven by confined crystallization in thin films — •Vladislav Stroganov and Leonid Ionov — Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Dresden, Deutschland

Polymer actuators are materials capable of changing their shape in response to variation of environmental conditions, thus performing mechanical work. They have been used for many applications such as: controlling the liquid flow in microfluidical devices actuators, designing of swimmers, walkers, sensors, imaging devices, and 3D microfabrication. One of the promising fields of applications of polymeric actuators is the design of biomaterials such as stents, sutures as well as bio-scaffolds. For such kind of applications, polymeric actuators must be both biocompatible and biodegradable.

In this work we report design of biodegradable thermoresponsive polymeric films with reversible actuation based on polycaprolactone-gelatin bilayers. The films are unfolded at room temperature, fold at temperature above polycaprolactone melting point and unfold again at room temperature. The actuation is based on reversible switching of the structure of the hydrophobic polymer (polycaprolactone) upon melting and crystallization. We found that the origin of this completely unexpected behavior is the orientation of polycaprolactone chains parallel to the surface of the film, which is retained even after melting and crystallization of the polymer - *crystallization memory effect*. We also demonstrated potential application of such reversible biodegradable thermo-sensitive actuators for reversible encapsulation.