Mussel-Inspired Lego Approach for Controlling the Wettability of Surfaces with Colorless Coatings

The control of surface wettability with polyphenol coatings has been at the forefront of materials research since the late 1990s, when robust underwater adhesion was linked to the presence of L-DOPA—a catecholic amino acid—in unusually high amounts, in the sequences of several mussel foot proteins. Since then, several successful approaches have been reported, although a common undesired feature of most of them is the presence of a remnant color and/or the intrinsic difficulty in fine-tuning and controlling the hydrophobic character. We report here a new family of functional catechol-based coatings, grounded in the oxidative condensation of readily available pyrocatechol and thiol-capped functional moieties. The presence of at least two additional thiol groups in their structure allows for polymerization through the formation of disulfide bonds. The synthetic flexibility, together with its modular character, allowed us to: (I) develop coatings with applications exemplified by textiles for oil-spill water treatment; (II) develop multifunctional coatings, and (III) fine-tune the WCA for flat and textile surfaces. All of this was achieved with the application of colorless coatings.Fil: Casagualda, Carolina. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Mancebo Aracil, Juan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; Argentina. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Moreno Villaecija, Miguel Angel. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: López Moral, Alba. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Alibés, Ramon. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Busqué, Félix. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Ruiz Molina, Daniel. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Españ

Synthesis of Polydopamine-Like Nanocapsules via Removal of a Sacrificial Mesoporous Silica Template with Water

Hollow polymeric polydopamine (PDA) micro-/nanocapsules have been obtained through a very simple, mild, and straightforward method that involves coating of silica mesoporous nanoparticles through an ammonia-triggered polymerization of PDA and the posterior removal of the sacrificial template simply by dispersion in water, without the need of any harsh chemical reagent, either in the presence or absence of active principles, from doxorubicin to iron oxide nanoparticles. To demonstrate the potential of the nanocapsules obtained with this new approach, they have been successfully used as nanocarriers for drug delivery.Fil: Nador, Fabiana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; España. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Guisasola Cal, Eduardo. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina; España. Universidad Complutense de Madrid; EspañaFil: Baeza, Alejandro. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina; España. Universidad Complutense de Madrid; EspañaFil: Moreno Villaecija, Miguel Angel. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Vallet Regí, Maria. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina; España. Universidad Complutense de Madrid; EspañaFil: Ruiz Molina, Daniel. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Españ