Metal ions play an important role in building nature-adaptive and responsive structures such as bones and proteins by interacting with biomolecules. Polymer hydrogel fibers have great potential applications in tissue engineering because they can provide a cell-friendly environment for cell growth. However, their application is limited by the poor stability of these fibers in aqueous environments. Inspired by natural metal ion/biomolecule interactions, adding metal ions to charged polymer blends can improve the stability of polymeric hydrogel fibers and introduce useful functionalities. This award supports fundamental research to produce stable hydrogel nanofibers from metal ion-containing charged polymer blends, to understand how the interactions between the metal ions and polymers affect the nanofiber's structure and property, and to explore the fabrication of nanoparticles using the metal ions. The method will produce stable hydrogel nanofibers with various functionalities that find applications in healthcare, biomedical, sensing and energy industries. The research will involve chemistry and materials science and engineering, and will offer excellent interdisciplinary research opportunities for students. The education and outreach activities will help broadening participation of underrepresented groups in research, and contribute to the workforce training and student recruitment in the field of science and engineering. Results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy and society.
Hydrogel fibers are promising candidates for manufacturing functional nanofibers for various applications but face challenges of low stability in aqueous solutions and ineffective further functionalization. Adding metal ions to complex polyelectrolytes can improve the stability of hydrogel nanofibers through metal ion/polyelectrolyte interactions and also enable the production of nanostructures on the fibers. The research team will study how the interactions between metal ions and polyelectrolytes affect the fiber's morphology, structure and property, as well as study the diffusion of metal ions from fibers. Furthermore, the team will use the embedded metal ions to produce different types of nanoparticles, which offers a novel approach for manufacturing nanomaterials. The results of the project will provide important guidance to manufacturing nanostructures using hydrogel fibers. The success of this transformative research will provide rational and predictable design rules for manufacturing multifunctional hydrogel nanofibers with structural and property control for various applications such as sensing and tissue engineering.
