ArticleChemical science2018
Reversibly tuning hydrogel stiffness through photocontrolled dynamic covalent crosslinks.
Article in Chemical science, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed.
- In situ processing of fibrous hydrogels by photochemistry for adaptive cellular microenvironments.Science advances · 2026Article
- Dynamic Covalent Chemistry: A Boon for Closed-Loop Recycling of Polymer Networks.Precision chemistry · 2026Review
- Viscoelastic Hydrogels Governed by Molecular Interactions and Mechanochemical Effects.Polymers · 2026Review
- Harnessing Phase Separation for the Development of High-Performance Hydrogels.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Competitive Inhibition as a Tool to Modulate and Predict Dynamic Hydrogel Mechanics.ACS central science · 2026Article
- Article
- Orthogonal and Multiresponsive Quinolinone Systems for Reversible and Recyclable Polymer Networks.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Complex Multistate Photophysics of a Rhodanine Photoswitch.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Polyacrylamide Hydrogels with Reversibly Photocontrolled Stiffness for 2D Mechanobiology.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2025Article
- Leveraging Protein-Ligand and DNA Interactions to Control Hydrogel Mechanics.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Light-based fabrication and 4D customization of hydrogel biomaterials.Nature reviews bioengineering · 2025Article
- Dynamic Hydrogel-Based Strategy for Traumatic Brain Injury Modeling and Therapy.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2025Review
- Stepwise Stiffening/Softening of and Cell Recovery from Reversibly Formulated Hydrogel Interpenetrating Networks.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2024Article
- Boronate Ester Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications: Challenges and Opportunities.Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society · 2024Review
- Internal Catalysis in Dynamic Hydrogels with Associative Thioester Cross-Links.ACS macro letters · 2024Article
- Stepwise Stiffening/Softening of and Cell Recovery from Reversibly Formulated Hydrogel Double Networks.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Multiple control of azoquinoline based molecular photoswitches.Chemical science · 2024Article
- Mucoadhesive Polymeric Polyologels Designed for the Treatment of Periodontal and Related Diseases of the Oral Cavity.Polymers · 2024Article
- Engineered Dynamic Hydrogel Niches for the Regulation of Redox Homeostasis in Osteoporosis and Degenerative Endocrine Diseases.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Controlling the physical properties of soft materials with external stimuli enables researchers to mimic and study dynamic systems. Of particular interest are hydrogels, polymer networks swollen by water with broad applicability to biomedicine. To control hydrogel mechanics with light, researchers have relied on a limited number of photochemical reactions. Here we introduce an approach to reversibly tune hydrogel mechanics with light by manipulating the stability of dynamic covalent crosslinks at the molecular level. The equilibrium between a boronic acid and diol to form a boronic ester can be altered by the configuration of an adjacent azobenzene photoswitch. By irradiating branched polymers bearing azobenzene-boronic acid and diol end groups with two different wavelengths of light, we can stiffen or soften the resulting hydrogel. Alternating irradiation induces reversible mechanical changes. Rheological characterization reveals that the hydrogels are viscoelastic, exhibiting stress relaxation on the order of seconds, and the stiffness is tuned independently of the crossover frequency. We have also demonstrated that this approach can be extended to use visible light for both softening and stiffening. These photocontrolled dynamic covalent crosslinks provide a versatile platform for tunable dynamic materials.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.