title: Out-of-water constitutional self-organization of chitosan-cinnamaldehyde dynagels.
abstract: An investigation of the constitutional adaptive gelation process of chitosan/cinnamaldehyde (C/Cy) dynagels is reported. These gels generate timely variant macroscopic organization across extended scales. In the first stage, imine-bond formation takes place "in-water" and generates low-ordered hydrogels. The progressive formation of imine bonds further induces "out-of-water" increased reactivity within interdigitated hydrophobic self-assembled layers of Cy, with a protecting environmental effect against hydrolysis and that leads to the stabilization of the imine bonds. The hydrophobic swelling due to Cy layers at the interfaces reaches a critical step when lamellar self-organized hybrids are generated (24 hours). This induces an important restructuration of the hydrogels on the micrometric scale, thus resulting in the formation of highly ordered microporous xerogel morphologies of high potential interest for chemical separations, drug delivery, and sensors.
authors.affiliation: "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of Romanian Academy, 41A Aleea Gr. Ghica Voda, Iasi (Romania).
authors.forename: Luminita
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moraru
authors.forename: Maria-Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Popescu
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicolescu
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zgardan
authors.forename: Bogdan C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Simionescu
authors.forename: Mihail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barboiu
keywords: biodynamers; chitosan; constitutional dynamic chemistry; gels; imines; self-assembly