Injectable Cryogels in Biomedicine

Cryogels are interconnected macroporous materials that are synthesized from a monomer solution at sub-zero temperatures. Cryogels, which are used in various applications in many research areas, are frequently used in biomedicine applications due to their excellent properties, such as biocompatibility, physical resistance and sensitivity. Cryogels can also be prepared in powder, column, bead, sphere, membrane, monolithic, and injectable forms. In this review, various examples of recent developments in biomedical applications of injectable cryogels, which are currently scarce in the literature, made from synthetic and natural polymers are discussed. In the present review, several biomedical applications of injectable cryogels, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, therapeutic, therapy, cell transplantation, and immunotherapy, are emphasized. Moreover, it aims to provide a different perspective on the studies to be conducted on injectable cryogels, which are newly emerging trend.

Preparation of Marshmallow-like Macroporous Silicone Monoliths in Simple Surfactant-free Aqueous Systems and Their Application to Flexible Thermal Insulation Materials

<b>Hydrophobic silicone macroporous materials prepared in an aqueous solution by the sol–gel method have been considered for various applications such as oil/water separation media, heat insulators, and liquid nitrogen adsorbents. In the conventional preparation process, surfactants are used to suppress phase separation to obtain a uniform bulk material. However, a large amount of solvent and time are required to remove them before drying, which hinders industrial-scale synthesis. By copolymerizing tetra-, tri-, and bifunctional organosilicon alkoxides in an aqueous acetic acid–urea solution, flexible macroporous silicone monoliths were successfully obtained, which recover their original shape even after 80 % uniaxial compression and large bending. The macroporous materials showed water repellency and heat resistance characteristic of silicone, and the thermal conductivity ~0.035 W m−1 K−1 did not increase even after 60 % uniaxial compression. Those silicone monoliths fabricated by a simple and highly reproducible green process are expected to be used widely.</b>

Rapid production of bicontinuous macroporous materials using intrinsically polymerizable bijels

The discovery of bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (bijels) in 2007 motivated the development of processing techniques to harness their unique morphological attributes in applications such as electrochemical energy storage...