Trong Nghia Ho

Master student

Investigation of alginate based hydrogel-modified PEDOT:PSS scaffolds for biomedical applications

 

Supervisors: M.Sc. Lisa Schöbel, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. h.c. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has gained attention in biomedical sciences due to its high electrical conductivity, making it a suitable biomaterial for various applications, such as biosensors, coatings for electrodes and substrates for tissue engineering [1]. Furthermore, conjugated polymers such as PEDOT:PSS have the potential to be manufactured in a low-cost, simple, and environmentally-friendly manner due to their water solubility [2]. However, this implies challenges regarding the instability of PEDOT:PSS in aqueous environments, which can be solved by crosslinking the electrically conductive polymer with biocompatible crosslinking agents [1,3]. The aim of this master thesis is the investigation of PEDOT:PSS-based scaffolds in terms of morphology, degradation behavior as well as mechanical and electrical properties in dependence on the concentration of the employed crosslinker. Moreover, the cell-material interactions of pristine PEDOT:PSS scaffolds and alginate based scaffolds will be investigated using NIH/3T3 cells.

[1]: M. Solazzo and M. G. Monaghan, “Hydrophilic, conductive and flexible piezoresistive PEDOT:PSS 3D sensors with tunable microarchitecture and crosslinked using a PEGylated crosslinker,” Synthetic Metals, vol. 290, p. 117157, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2022.117157.

[2]: A. Hakansson et al., “Effect of (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GOPS) on the electrical properties of PEDOT:PSS films,” J. Polym. Sci. Part B: Polym. Phys., vol. 55, no. 10, pp. 814–820, 2017, doi: 10.1002/polb.24331.

[3]: M. ElMahmoudy, S. Inal, A. Charrier, I. Uguz, G. G. Malliaras, and S. Sanaur, “Tailoring the Electrochemical and Mechanical Properties of PEDOT:PSS Films for Bioelectronics,” Macromol. Mater. Eng., vol. 302, no. 5, p. 1600497, 2017, doi: 10.1002/mame.201600497.