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Recently, muscle cells were studied as a promising bioactuator for bio-syncretic robots. While projection micro-stereolithography (PμSL) can print poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels into micro-scale 3D structures, the muscle cells based robots could be small and easy-fabricated if the muscle cells can directly grow and differentiate on PμSL PEGDA structures. However, PμSL PEGDA cannot be directly used as an extracellular environment for muscle cells without bio-functionalization; the behavior of muscle cells on modified PμSL PEGDA should also be studied. In this paper, collagen I and Matrigel were used to explore the bio-functionalization of PμSL PEGDA. By using functionalized PμSL PEGDA hydrogel structures, the adhesion, survival, differentiation of muscle cells were studied. Results show that physically crosslinked by collagen I, PμSL PEGDA was able to provide a suitable environment for adhesion of C2C12 muscle cells. Mixed with 10% Matrigel in DMEM, the condition of cells were further improved. The results of viability assay were consistent and confirmed the living condition of muscle cells on PμSL PEGDA. The differentiation test provides the evidence that the differentiated C2C12 muscle cells were able to contract. Eventually, this paper provide methods for improving the bio-functionalization of PμSL printed PEGDA, and the results proves that the functionalized PμSL printed PEGDA structures have the potential to be used as muscle cells based micro bioactuators and bio-syncretic robots.

A series of linear-comb poly(trimethylene carbonate)-block-poly(L-lactide) [lcP(TMC-b-LLA)] with polybutadiene (PB) as backbone and a P(TMC-b-LLA) diblock copolymer as side chain were obtained using controlled synthesis and evaluated as thermoplastic elastomers. The comb-like graft copolymer was achieved using sequential ring-opening polymerization of trimethylene carbonate (TMC) and L-lactide (L-LA) at room temperature (RT) using an organocatalyst, associated with the multi-hydroxyl PB (PB–OH) as a macroinitiator. The thermal and mechanical properties of these graft copolymers were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical analysis and tensile testing. The Young's modulus (E) and the elongation at break (eb) followed predicted trends as the monomer composition changed. Furthermore, well defined linear-comb PLLA-gradient-PTMC [lcP(LLA-grad-TMC)] and linear-comb PLLA-random-PTMC [lcP(LLA-ran-TMC)] were also synthesized for comparison. Results from 1H and 13C-NMR spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography confirmed the formation of the chain microstructures. It was found that the properties of the copolymers depended not only on the comonomer content but also on their topologies. The results showed that the gradient and random structure of the side chain could yield unusual properties: the lcP(LLA-grad-TMC) copolymer possessed a distinctive, broad glass transition temperature in comparison with the other two graft copolymers. The lcP(LLA-ran-TMC) random copolymer performed like a typical rubber with a significant high eb value (eb = 1800%) which was even larger than the pure linear-comb PTMC (eb = 865%). Furthermore, this simple “one-pot” method using an organocatalyst to synthesize comb-like graft copolymers with “block”, “gradient” and “random” side chains is demonstrated systematically in this work.

Three series of narrowly dispersed comb-like graft poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) with controlled graft length and graft density have been facilely synthesized and characterized. The structural information was determined by means of 1H NMR, GPC, and viscometry, demonstrating the well-defined grafted structure. The effects of grafting parameters on rheological properties, thermal and crystallization behaviors were investigated systematically to illustrate the structure–property relationships. By the analysis of the rheological behavior, the increase of graft length and graft density can both lead to an elevated value of zero-viscosity (η0), enhanced complex modulus (G*) and increased complex viscosity (η*). Comparatively, graft density contributes more to the improvement of rheological properties than graft length does. For thermal properties, DSC results show that the glass transition temperature (Tg), the melting temperature (Tm) and the crystallization enthalpy (ΔHm) of graft PLLA increase with the chain length and decrease with the graft density. Furthermore, spherulite morphologies and growth rates were studied by polarized microscopy (POM), and the observation revealed a remarkable improvement of radius growth rate of the spherulites (G) when graft density increased. The results indicate that G depends more on the molecular weight of each arm (Mn,arm) than the total Mn.

A series of N-Fe-Bi2Ti2O7 nanofibers were successfully synthesized. The structure, morphology, visible light photocatalytic properties, and the degradation mechanism of N-Fe-Bi2Ti2O7 were investigated. A new phase of Bi4Ti3O7 and smaller band gap could be observed after doing Fe and N into Bi2Ti2O7. It can degrade 66 % MO and 87 % MB in 120 min under visible light irradiation, which is much more than that of pure Bi2Ti2O7. The results indicate that such unique structure could enhance the charge transfer between the nanostructure interfaces and therefore improve its photocatalytic activities. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1610-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

To search for nano-drug preparations with high efficiency in tumor treatment, we evaluated the drug-loading capacity and cell-uptake toxicity of three kinds of nanoparticles (NPs). Pullulan was grafted with ethylenediamine and hydrophobic groups to form hydrophobic cholesterol-modified amino-pullulan (CHAP) conjugates. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance were used to identify the CHAP structure and calculate the degree of substitution of the cholesterol group. We compared three types of NPs with close cholesterol hydrophobic properties: CHAP, cholesterol-modified pullulan (CHP), and cholesterol-modified carboxylethylpullulan (CHCP), with the degree of substitution of cholesterol of 2.92%, 3.11%, and 3.46%, respectively. As compared with the two other NPs, CHAP NPs were larger, 263.9 nm, and had a positive surface charge of 7.22 mV by dynamic light-scattering measurement. CHAP NPs showed low drug-loading capacity, 12.3%, and encapsulation efficiency of 70.8%, which depended on NP hydrophobicity and was affected by surface charge. The drug release amounts of all NPs increased in the acid media, with CHAP NPs showing drug-release sensitivity with acid change. Cytotoxicity of HeLa cells was highest with mitoxantrone-loaded CHAP NPs on MTT assay. CHAP NPs may have potential as a high-efficiency drug carrier for tumor treatment.

Novel carbon quantum dot (CQD)-modified BiOI photocatalysts were prepared via a facile hydrothermal process. The CQD-modified BiOI materials were characterized by multiple techniques. The CQD with an average size around several nanometers was distributed on the surface of BiOI microsphere. Its photocatalytic activity was investigated sufficiently by the photodegradation of methylene orange (MO). The results showed that the CQD/BiOI 1.5 wt.% sample exhibited the optimum photocatalytic activity, which was 2.5 times that of the pure BiOI. This improvement was attributed to the crucial role of CQDs, which could be acted as a photocenter for absorbing solar light, charge separation center for suppressing charge recombination. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1262-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.