Development of novel hydrogel materials and their applications

Mondal, Anoy (2022) Development of novel hydrogel materials and their applications. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

Text (MS dissertation of Anoy Mondal (18IP004)) 18IP004.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB)

Abstract

Hydrogels are soft materials that can entrap solvent water molecules. Herein, we discuss the gelation of long-chain acylated asparagine molecules. The process of gelation of such molecules is a slow one with the hydrogels form after 24 hours in an aqueous buffer media at physiological pH of 7.4. Rheology data indicated that the strength of these hydrogels increased with an increase in the chain length of the acylated asparagine derivatives. Microscopy studies provide evidence of a transition in morphology from vesicle-like particles to entangled fibrillar networks with the completion of gelation. We have probed the mechanism of gelation using mass and 1H-NMR techniques. This provided us with evidence of a condensation reaction happening in situ which yielded the amide dimer (di-asparagine) of the acylated asparagine molecules. The amide dimer by itself showed faster gelation rates. They were also stronger than the gels produced by the monomer. However, in case of stability over time, the monomer gels were stable for weeks, and the dimer gels degraded much faster, within hours. Other derivatives of asparagine were also synthesized, especially changing the linker in the process, using thioester and amide linkages in the long chain incorporation and co-gelation studies were performed. Such soft materials, prepared from lipidated amino acids would be helpful in various applications.

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