Andreia ROSATELLA1, Joana BELO2, Carlos AFONSO2
1CBIOS - Research Center for Biosciences & Health Technologies, Universidade Lusófona , Lisboa, Portugal
2Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Although the first publication of an ionic liquid (IL) was in the last century, since the 2000s publications in the area of ILs have grown exponentially. And just when the scientific community thought that publications with ionic liquids would start to decline, they have turned around with new generations of less toxic and biodegradable ILs including from this team [1-2], with applications not only in the biological field, but also in so many other areas. ILs are desirable materials not only because their properties can be adjusted, but also because it is possible to incorporate them into other materials, such as polymers, allowing the development of smart materials, by synergistically combining both material’s features.[3-4] For example, photo-responsive properties can be integrated on ILs through the incorporation of photochromic moieties into either cations or anions and further attached to the final polymer.[4] Gelatin is an inexpensive water-soluble denatured collagen, biocompatible, however with poor properties to be applied as hydrogel. To increase it applicability, gelatin is combined with other polymers, such as alginate, chitosan or hyaluronic acid, that add structure to the final hydrogel, or by derivatization, usually by adding methacrylate groups to the amine-containing side groups of gelatin, leading to photopolymerizable hydrogel.[5] In this work we describe a new generation of materials that combines chemical versatility of ILs with the morphological flexibility of biopolymers with photochromic properties.
Acknowledgements:
The authors also thank Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (Ref. PTDC/QUI-QOR/32008/2017, PTDC/CTM-CTM/29869/2017, UIDB/04138/2020, UIDP/04138/2020, UIDB/04567/2020 and UIDP/04567/2020, and EXPL/OCE-ETA/1109/2021) for financial support.
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4. Correia, D. M.; Fernandes, L. C.; Martins, P. M.; Garcia-Astrain, C.; Costa, C. M.; Reguera, J.; Lanceros-Mendez, S., Ionic Liquid-Polymer Composites: A New Platform for Multifunctional Applications. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, doi:
5. Wang, X. H.; Ao, Q.; Tian, X. H.; Fan, J.; Tong, H.; Hou, W. J.; Bai, S. L., Gelatin-Based Hydrogels for Organ 3D Bioprinting. Polymers-Basel 2017, 9 (9).