Self-healing hydrogel with cross-linking induced thermo-response regulated light emission property

With increasing attention paid to smart materials, self-healing hydrogels with thermo-responses have been greatly developed in the past several years. At the same time, fluorescent or light emitting polymers have been studied for use as bioimaging tools and drug delivery vehicles. In this research, thermo-responsive self-healing hydrogels with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property were prepared from tetraphenylethylene (TPE) containing TPE-poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-stat-Diacetone acrylamide) [TPE-P(DMA-stat-DAA)] cross-linked by diacylhydrazide. In addition to self-healing based on reversible acylhydrazone bond, the copolymer and hydrogels showed thereto-responses. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the hydrogels was regulated to body temperature. Based on the AIE property of the TPE unit, the hydrogels showed an enhanced light emitting property above the LCST, which was regulated by temperature change. The in vitro cytotoxicity experiment showed that the hydrogels are not toxic, and the DOX release rate can be enhanced by low pH values, which endowed this kind of thermo-responsive light emitting hydrogel with great potential for applications in bio-diagnosis, drug delivery, artificial organs with light sensitive detection, etc.