Crosslinking of gelatin by ring opening metathesis under aqueous conditions—an exploratory study†
This article is published in Journal of Polymers for Advanced Technologies as a special issue on 12th PAT Conference in Berlin, 2013, edited by Prof. Andreas Lendlein and Prof. Marc Behl, Institute of Biomaterial Science, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht GmbH, Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, Kantstr. 55, 14513 Teltow, Germany.
Abstract
Ring-opening metathesis catalysis has received little attention as a means to functionalize or crosslink biopolymers in water since the required catalysts are usually not stable under these conditions. However, biopolymer solubility suggests such a procedure. We show that Grubbs first and second generation catalysts (in emulsion) as well as a water-soluble Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst can be applied to crosslink glycidyl methacrylated gelatin with norbornene dicarboxylic acid in water by a cross metathesis-ring opening metathesis approach. A mechanistic study suggests that cross metathesis between the functionalized polymer and the cyclic olefin acts as an initiating step for the crosslinking reaction. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
