Issue 46, 2023

Dendronization of chitosan to afford unprecedent thermoresponsiveness and tunable microconfinement

Abstract

Convenient chemical modification of biomacromolecules to create novel biocompatible functional materials satisfies the current requirements of sustainable chemistry. Dendronization of chitosan with dendritic oligoethylene glycols (OEGs) paves a strategy for the preparation of functional dendronized chitosans (DCSs) with unprecedent thermoresponsive behavior, which inherit biological features from polysaccharides and the topological features from dendritic OEGs. In addition, densely packed dendritic OEG chains around the backbone provide efficient cooperative interactions and form an intriguing confined microenvironment based on the degradable biopolymers. In this perspective, we describe the principle for the preparation of the thermoresponsive DCSs, and focus on the molecular envelop effect from the hydrophobic microconfinement to the encapsulated guest molecules or moieties. Particular attention is put on their capacity to regulate behavior and the functions of the encapsulated guests through thermally-mediated dehydration and collapse of the densely packed dendritic OEGs. We believe that the methodology described here may provide prospects for the fabrication of functional materials from biomacromolecules, especially when used as environmentally friendly nanomaterials or in accurate diagnosis and therapy.

Graphical abstract: Dendronization of chitosan to afford unprecedent thermoresponsiveness and tunable microconfinement

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
09 Aug 2023
Accepted
02 Nov 2023
First published
07 Nov 2023

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023,11, 11024-11034

Dendronization of chitosan to afford unprecedent thermoresponsiveness and tunable microconfinement

Y. Yao, X. Shi, Z. Zhao, A. Zhang and W. Li, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023, 11, 11024 DOI: 10.1039/D3TB01803B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements