posted on 2016-05-02, 00:00authored byNuno M. Oliveira, Yu Shrike Zhang, Jie Ju, Ai-Zheng Chen, Yu Chen, Sameer R. Sonkusale, Mehmet Remzi Dokmeci, Rui L. Reis, João F. Mano, Ali Khademhosseini
Hydrogels, formed through cross-linking
of hydrophilic polymer
chains, represent a class of materials that are capable of holding
large volumes of water. Here we report a novel class of hydrophobic
hydrogels that can free-float on the surface of different aqueous
media by coating conventional hydrogels with a layer of hydrophobic
microparticles. We further demonstrate that these floating hydrogel-based
devices can be used for sensing applications on liquid surfaces such
as the construction of floating pH meters. Moreover, we demonstrate
that the floating hydrogels present high mobility with excellent self-assembling
property on the surface of water. Importantly, the floating systems
reserved the intrinsic biocompatibility of the core hydrogels, enabling
microengineering of floating tissue constructs. It is expected that
these floating hydrophobic hydrogel-based devices will likely find
widespread applications including but not limited to sensing, tissue
engineering, and biomedicine.