Elastic and Thermoreversible Iongels by Supramolecular PVA/Phenol Interactions

GISELA C. LUQUE; PICCHIO MATIAS LUIS; MARTINS ANA; DOMINGUEZ-ALFARO ANTONIO ; TOMÉ LILIANA; MECERREYES DAVID; MINARI, ROQUE J.

MACROMOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2020

1616-5187

Iongels have attracted much attention over the years as ion-conducting softmaterials for applications in several technologies including stimuli-responsivedrug release and flexible (bio)electronics. Nowadays, iongels with additionalfunctionalities such as electronic conductivity, self-healing, thermo-responsiveness, or biocompatibility are actively being searched for high demanding applications. In this work, a simple and rapid synthetic pathway to prepare elastic and thermoreversible iongels is presented. These iongels are prepared by supramolecular crosslinking between polyphenols biomolecules with ahydroxyl-rich biocompatible polymer such as poly(vinyl alcohol) in the presenceof ionic liquids. Using this strategy, a variety of iongels are obtainedby combining different plant-derived polyphenol compounds such as gallicacid, pyrogallol, and tannic acid with imidazolium-based ionic liquids, namely1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoliumbromide. A suite of characterization tools is used to study the structural, morphological, mechanical, rheological, and thermal properties of the supramolecular iongels. These iongels can withstand large deformations (40% under compression) with full recovery, revealing reversible transitions from solid to liquid state between 87 and 125 °C. Finally, the polyphenol-based thermoreversible iongels show appropriated properties for their potential application as printable electrolytes for bioelectronics