The macromolecule oligo(poly(ethylene glycol) fumarate) (OPF) exhibits promising attributes for creating suitable three-dimensional hydrogel environments to study cell behavior, deliver therapeutics, and serve as a degradable, nonfouling material. However, traditional synthesis techniques are time consuming, contain salt contaminants, and generate significant waste. These issues have been overcome with an alternative, one-pot approach that utilizes inert gas sparging. Departing from previous synthetic schemes that require acid scavengers, inert gas sparging removes byproducts in situ, eliminating significant filtration and postprocessing steps, while allowing a more uniform product. Characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance, gel permeation chromatography, and differential scanning calorimetry, nitrogen sparge synthesis yields an OPF product with greater polymer length than traditional acid scavenger synthesis methods. Furthermore, nitrogen-sparged OPF readily crosslinks using either ultraviolet or thermal initiator methods with or without the addition of short-chain diacrylate units, allowing for greater tunability in hydrogel properties with little to no cytotoxicity. Overall, inert gas sparging provides a longer chain and cleaner polymer product for hydrogel material studies while maintaining degradable characteristics.

中文翻译：

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利用惰性气体喷射无酸清除剂合成寡（聚（乙二醇）富马酸酯）

大分子寡聚（聚（乙二醇）富马酸酯）（OPF）在创建合适的三维水凝胶环境以研究细胞行为、提供治疗和用作可降解、防污材料方面表现出有希望的特性。然而，传统的合成技术耗时长，含有盐污染物，并产生大量废物。这些问题已经通过一种利用惰性气体喷射的替代一锅法得到解决。与之前需要酸清除剂的合成方案不同，惰性气体喷射可原位去除副产物，消除了重要的过滤和后处理步骤，同时允许更均匀的产品。以核磁共振、凝胶渗透色谱和差示扫描量热法为特征，氮气喷射合成产生的 OPF 产物比传统的酸清除剂合成方法具有更长的聚合物长度。此外，在添加或不添加短链二丙烯酸酯单元的情况下，使用紫外线或热引发剂方法，氮气喷射的 OPF 很容易交联，从而使水凝胶性能具有更大的可调性，几乎没有细胞毒性。总体而言，惰性气体喷射为水凝胶材料研究提供了更长链和更清洁的聚合物产品，同时保持可降解特性。