Issue 8, 2010

Highly swellable free-standing hydrogel nanotube forests

Abstract

Well-ordered arrays of high aspect ratio nanotubes display structural anisotropy, high surface area, and functionalizable surface morphology. We demonstrated, for the first time, the vapor deposition synthesis of well-ordered arrays of hydrogel nanotubes (i.e. nanotube forest structures) with controllable swelling properties using anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes. Initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) enabled templating of hydrogel nanotubes from 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) monomers with systematically tuned crosslinking ratios. Water uptake and the swelling ratios of the nanotubes monotonically decreased with the crosslink density. For a given crosslinked hydrogel composition, the degree of swelling for the nanotubes was observed to be significantly higher than for the planar films. Furthermore, protein adsorption is systematically moderated through the crosslinking density on nanotube samples, making them potential templates for biomaterials.

Graphical abstract: Highly swellable free-standing hydrogel nanotube forests

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
11 Jan 2010
Accepted
19 Feb 2010
First published
11 Mar 2010

Soft Matter, 2010,6, 1635-1639

Highly swellable free-standing hydrogel nanotube forests

G. Ozaydin Ince, G. Demirel, K. K. Gleason and M. C. Demirel, Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 1635 DOI: 10.1039/C000569J

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