Elastomers that enable rapid and repeatable self-healing properties in the absence of external stimuli and which can be tuned for mechanical, adhesive, and degradable properties. Background: Self-healing elastomers that restore their properties after damage hold great promise across a variety of industries and applications. Those that have been explored for engineering applications (e.g. flexible electrodes and self-healing paints) require harsh conditions (e.g. high temperatures and toxic catalysts) in order to exhibit their self-healing properties, which restricts their use in biomedical applications. Efforts to incorporate reversible self-healing functionality into soft polymer chains have mostly involved non-degradable polymers while those that are degradable do not possess the ability to properly self-heal at ambient physiologic conditions. As a result, the clinical use of self-healing elastomers has been limited to applications where biodegradability is not required (e.g. self-healing cement and fillers for orthopedic and dental applications, respectively). Technology Overview: This invention provides self-healing elastomers that can be modified to impart adhesive and/or biodegradable properties and/or tuned to adjust mechanical properties, which, as a whole, enable broad application potential. The elastomers of this invention possess the ability to repeatedly and rapidly self-repair physical damages at ambient conditions without the use of external stimuli. These elastomers have been used to prepare and test a biodegradable, self-healing vascular (arteriovenous) graft early cannulation following implantation, unlike traditional PTFE grafts that require a 4-week period prior to the first cannulation.
Advantages:
- Highly tunable depending on the desired application
- Do not require external stimuli to enable self-healing properties
- Self-healing at physiologic temperature, where desired
- Ability to repeatedly self-heal without limitations resulting from consumption of loaded agents
Applications:
- Biomedical (wearable electronics, biosensors, self-healing electrodes, wound healing, etc.)
- Industrial (coatings, adhesives, etc.)
- Tissue engineering (vascular grafts, cardiac/vascular patches, etc.)
- Drug delivery
Intellectual Property Summary: US Provisional Patent Application 63/255,012 filed October 13, 2021 Stage of Development: Preclinical Licensing Status: Available for licensing or collaboration.
Website
https://suny.technologypublisher.com/tech/Self-Healing_Elastomers
Contact Information
TTO Home Page: https://suny.technologypublisher.com
Name: Timothy Dee
Title: Associate Director
Email: tpdee@buffalo.edu
Phone: 716-645-8139