Abstract
Stimuli-responsive polymeric materials have attracted significant attention in a variety of high-value-added and industrial applications during the past decade. Among various stimuli, light is of particular interest as a stimulus because of its unique advantages, such as precisely spatiotemporal control, mild conditions, ease of use, and tunability. In recent years, a lot of effort towards the synthesis of a biocompatible and biodegradable polypeptide has resulted in many examples of photo-responsive nanoparticles. Depending on the specific photochemistry, those polypeptide derived nano-assemblies are capable of crosslinking, disassembling, or morphing into other shapes upon light irradiation. In this review, we aim to assess the current state of photo-responsive polypeptide based nanomaterials. Firstly, those ‘smart’ nanomaterials will be categorized by their photo-triggered events (i.e., crosslinking, degradation, and isomerization), which are inherently governed by photo-sensitive functionalities, including O-nitrobenzyl, coumarin, azobenzene, cinnamyl, and spiropyran. In addition, the properties and applications of those polypeptide nanomaterials will be highlighted as well. Finally, the current challenges and future directions of this subject will be evaluated.
Highlights
Stimuli-responsive or ‘Smart’ polymers are capable of changing their physical and/or chemical properties upon receiving external triggers, such as temperature, pH, redox, mechanical forces, and light [1–9]
The ability of smart polymers to respond to light stems from the incorporation of photo-sensitive chemical structures [28–30]
Those moieties can be classified into three general categories based on their specific photo-chemistry (Scheme 1A–C)
Summary
Stimuli-responsive or ‘Smart’ polymers are capable of changing their physical and/or chemical properties upon receiving external triggers, such as temperature, pH, redox, mechanical forces, and light [1–9]. These tailor-made polymers are receiving significant interest in the fields of drug delivery, biosensor, tissue engineering, coatings, and self-healing materials [10–14]. The ability of smart polymers to respond to light stems from the incorporation of photo-sensitive chemical structures [28–30]. Those moieties can be classified into three general categories based on their specific photo-chemistry (Scheme 1A–C). By taking advantage of the above-mentioned photo-chemistry, various light-triggered morphological transformations
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