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In order to shrink the size of semiconductor devices and improve their
efficiency at the same time, silicon-based semiconductor devices have
been engineered, until the material almost reaches its performance
limits. As the candidate to be used next in semiconducting devices,
single-wall carbon nanotubes show a great potential due to their
promise of increased device efficiency and their high charge carrier
mobilities in the nanometer size active areas. However, there are
material based problems to overcome in order to imply SWNTs in the
semiconductor devices. SWNTs tend to aggregate in bundles and it is
not trivial to obtain an electronically or chirally homogeneous SWNT
dispersion and when it is done, a homogeneous thin film needs to be
produced with a technique that is practical, easy and scalable. This
work was aimed to solve both of these problems.
In the first part of this study, six different polymers, containing
fluorene or carbazole as the rigid part and bipyridine, bithiophene or
biphenyl as the accompanying copolymer unit, were used to selectively
disperse semiconducting SWNTs. With the data obtained from
absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy of the corresponding
dispersions, it was found out that the rigid part of the copolymer plays a
primary role in determining its dispersion efficiency and electronic
sorting ability. Within the two tested units, carbazole has a higher π
electron density. Due to increased π−π interactions, carbazole
containing copolymers have higher dispersion efficiency. However, the
electronic sorting ability of fluorene containing polymers is superior.
Chiral selection of the polymers in the dispersion is not directly
foreseeable from the selection of backbone units. At the end, obtaining a monochiral dispersion is found to be highly dependent on the used raw
material in combination to the preferred polymer.
Next, one of the best performing polymers due to high chirality
enrichment and electronic sorting ability was chosen in order to
disperse SWNTs. Thin films of varying thickness between 18 ± 5 to
755o±o5 nm were prepared using vacuum filtration wet transfer method
in order to analyze them optically and electronically.
The scalability and efficiency of the integrated thin film production
method were shown using optical, topographical and electronic
measurements. The relative photoluminescence quantum yield of the
radiative decay from the SWNT thin films was found to be constant for
the thickness scale. Constant roughness on the film surface and linearly
increasing concentration of SWNTs were also supporting the scalability
of this thin film production method. Electronic measurements on bottom
gate top contact transistors have shown an increasing charge carrier
mobility for linear and saturation regimes. This was caused by the
missing normalization of the mobility for the thickness of the active
layer. This emphasizes the importance of considering this dimension for
comparison of different field effect transistor mobilities.
Motivated by the great potential which is offered by the combination of additive manufacturing and tissue engineering, a novel polymeric bioink platform based on poly(2 oxazoline)s was developed which might help to further advance the young and upcoming field of biofabrication. In the present thesis, the synthesis as well as the characteristics of several diblock copolymers consisting of POx and POzi have been investigated with a special focus on their suitability as bioinks.
In general, the copolymerization of 2-oxazolines and 2-oxazines bearing different alkyl side chains was demonstrated to yield polymers in good agreement with the degree of polymerization aimed for and moderate to low dispersities.
For every diblock copolymer synthesized during the present study, a more or less pronounced dependency of the dynamic viscosity on temperature could be demonstrated. Diblock copolymers comprising a hydrophilic PMeOx block and a thermoresponsive PnPrOzi block showed temperature induced gelation above a degree of polymerization of 50 and a polymer concentration of 20 wt%. Such a behavior has never been described before for copolymers solely consisting of poly(cyclic imino ether)s.
Physically cross linked hydrogels based on POx b POzi copolymers exhibit reverse thermal gelation properties like described for solutions of PNiPAAm and Pluronic F127. However, by applying SANS, DLS, and SLS it could be demonstrated that the underlying gel formation mechanism is different for POx b POzi based hydrogels. It appears that polymersomes with low polydispersity are formed already at very low polymer concentrations of 6 mg/L. Increasing the polymer concentration resulted in the formation of a bicontinuous sponge like structure which might be formed due to the merger of several vesicles. For longer polymer chains a phase transition into a gyroid structure was postulated and corresponds well with the observed rheological data.
Stable hydrogels with an unusually high mechanical strength (G’ ~ 4 kPa) have been formed above TGel which could be adjusted over a range of 20 °C by changing the degree of polymerization if maintaining the symmetric polymer architecture. Variations of the chain ends revealed only a minor influence on TGel whereas the influence of the solvent should not be neglected as shown by a comparison of cell culture medium and MilliQ water.
Rotationally as well as oscillatory rheological measurements revealed a high suitability for printing as POx b POzi based hydrogels exhibit strong shear thinning behavior in combination with outstanding recovery properties after high shear stress.
Cell viability assays (WST-1) of PMeOx b PnPrOzi copolymers against NIH 3T3 fibroblasts and HaCat cells indicated that the polymers were well tolerated by the cells as no dose-dependent cytotoxicity could be observed after 24 h at non-gelling concentrations up to 100 g/L.
In summary, copolymers consisting of POx and POzi significantly increased the accessible range of properties of POx based materials. In particular thermogelation of aqueous solutions of diblock copolymers comprising PMeOx and PnPrOzi was never described before for any copolymer consisting solely of POx or POzi. In combination with other characteristics, e.g. very good cytocompatibility at high polymer concentrations and comparably high mechanical strength, the formed hydrogels could be successfully used for 3D bioprinting. Although the results appear promising and the developed hydrogel is a serious bioink candidate, competition is tough and it remains an open question which system or systems will be used in the future.
The aim of this thesis was the preparation of a biomaterial ink for the fabrication of chemically crosslinked hydrogel scaffolds with low micron sized features using melt electrowriting (MEW). By developing a functional polymeric material based on 2-alkyl-2-oxazine (Ozi) and 2-alkyl-2-oxazoline (Ox) homo- and copolymers in combination with Diels-Alder (DA)-based dynamic covalent chemistry, it was possible to achieve this goal. This marks an important step for the additive manufacturing technique melt electrowriting (MEW), as soft and hydrophilic structures become available for the first time. The use of dynamic covalent chemistry is a very elegant and efficient method for consolidating covalent crosslinking with melt processing. It was shown that the high chemical versatility of the Ox and Ozi chemistry offers great potential to control the processing parameters. The established platform offers straight forward potential for modification with biological cues and fluorescent markers. This is essential for advanced biological applications. The physical properties of the material are readily controlled and the potential for 4D-printing was highlighted as well. The developed hydrogel architectures are excellent candidates for 3D cell culture applications. In particular, the low internal strength of some of the scaffolds in combination with the tendency of such constructs to collapse into thin strings could be interesting for the cultivation of muscle or nerve cells. In this context it was also possible to show that MEW printed hydrogel scaffolds can withstand the aspiration and ejection through a cannula. This allows the application as scaffolds for the minimally invasive delivery of implants or functional tissue equivalent structures to various locations in the human body.