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Download fileElimination of Unreacted Acrylate Double Bonds in the Polymer Networks of Microparticles Synthesized via Flow Lithography
journal contribution
posted on 2020-02-25, 19:43 authored by Hyun June Moon, Minhee Ku, Yoon Ho Roh, Hyun Jee Lee, Jaemoon Yang, Ki Wan BongFlow lithography
(FL), a versatile technique used to synthesize
anisotropic multifunctional microparticles, has attracted substantial
interest, given that the resulting particles with complex geometries
and multilayered biochemical functionalities can be used in a wide
variety of applications. However, after this process, there are double
bonds remaining from the cross-linkable groups of monomers. The unreacted
cross-linkable groups can affect the particles’ biochemical
properties. Here, we verify that the microparticles produced by FL
contain a significant number of unreacted acrylate double bonds (UADBs),
which could cause irreversible biochemical changes in the particle
and pernicious effects to biological systems. We also confirm that
the particles contain a considerable number of UADBs, regardless of
the various synthetic (lithographic) conditions that can be used in
a typical FL process. We present an effective way to eliminate a substantial
amount of UADBs after synthesis by linking biochemically inert poly(ethylene
glycol) based on click chemistry. We verify that eliminating UADBs
by using this click chemistry approach can efficiently resolve problems,
such as the occurrence of random reactions and the cytotoxicity of
UADBs.