Graduate Student Ruth Ebubechukwu

"Synthesis and Characterization of Mechanoresponsive Biomimetic Polymer Materials"

The extracellular matrix is known to be stress-responsive as it combines high mechanical integrity with the ability to conform to mechanical force, undergoes non-linear strain-stiffening, and growth. This is achieved through changes in the network structure and bond formation between fibers.1 It has been at the heart of scientific research to fabricate synthetic systems that mimic force-sensitive biological tissues, and due to the chain-like nature of polymers, they remain good candidates for this task.
Of the various strategies utilized in the synthesis of mechanoresponsive polymers, the incorporation of mechanophores – force-responsive molecular units that produce chemical and physical responses2 – is exploited in this presentation. The synthesis and characterization of these mechanoresponsive polymers will be covered.
Matsuda et al., have developed mechanoresponsive self-growing polymers (for possible use in soft robotics) through mechanoradical generation, which then initiates crosslinking to produce polymers with higher density and improved mechanical strength.3 A hierarchical nanoparticle-in-micropore composite with high sensitivity and stretchability was fabricated by Park et al., as a model for mechanochromic e-skin, capable of dynamic and static force detection. This provides a generalizable strategy that could potentially lead to the fabrication of versatile materials for a wide range of applications.4

References
1. Burla, F., Mulla, Y., Vos, B. E., Aufderhorst-Roberts, A., & Koenderink, G. H. (2019). From mechanical resilience to active material properties in biopolymer networks. Nature Reviews Physics, 1(4), 249-263.
2. Li, J., Nagamani, C., & Moore, J. S. (2015). Polymer mechanochemistry: from destructive to productive. Accounts of chemical research, 48(8), 2181-2190.
3. Matsuda, T., Kawakami, R., Namba, R., Nakajima, T., & Gong, J. P. (2019). Mechanoresponsive self-growing hydrogels inspired by muscle training. Science, 363(6426), 504-508.
4. Park, J., Lee, Y., Barbee, M. H., Cho, S., Cho, S., Shanker, R., Kim, J., Myoung, J., Kim, M. P., Baig, C., Craig, S. L., & Ko, H. (2019). A hierarchical nanoparticle‐in‐micropore architecture for enhanced mechanosensitivity and stretchability in mechanochromic electronic skins. Advanced Materials, 31(25), 1808148.