Poly(lactic acid)/poly(ethylene glycol) stereocomplexed physical hydrogels showing thermally-induced gel
By Hailiang Mao
Published in Materials Chemistry Frontiers
2017
Abstract
Stereocomplexation of complementary chiral blocks has been a feasible way to prepare thermoresponsive physical gels (or thermogels). Understanding the thermoresponsive phase behavior of stereocomplexable amphiphilic copolymers in water is essential to prepare thermogels with tunable physical properties. Herein, we use an enantiomeric mixture of the poly(D-lactic acid) (PDLA)/poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) diblock copolymer and the poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/PEG triblock copolymer as a stereocomplexable system and report a novel thermogel that exhibits unique gel