REDOXIVE: Water activated adhesives and antiviral coatings

Discovery of a water-activated, covalent crosslinking reaction heralds a new platform for non-toxic adhesives. The self-curing, redox-based adhesive (Redoxive) addresses the three biggest technological limitations of all bioadhesives; 1) surface-activated crosslinking that transitions from liquid glue into a biorubber, 2) tunable adhesive platform that spans anti-viral coatings to non-toxic tissue bonding, and 3) incorporates scalable production with sufficient shelf life for wide spread industrial application MRT1- Crosslinking Structure Activity Relationships will synthesize CateGlu into liquid formulations that transition into a biorubber upon contact with water (self-curing) or voltage initiation (electrocuring). Recent discoveries in redox paired acceptor/donor groups have yielded a water-free, semi-stable adhesive that begins to bond surfaces in the presence of water/oxygen or with an applied voltage. To optimize reaction kinetics and shelf stability, MRT1 seeks to develop 1) a library of redox adhesives through a click chemistry approach of catechol precursors grafted onto branched polymers, 2) Exploit donor/acceptor redox pairing to achieve rapid bonding upon contact with hydrated surfaces. 3) Optimize redox pairing to achieve liquid to solid gelation time in 5 min or less. Hypothesis: Liquid dendrimers with Schiff base/catechol redox pairs act as electron acceptor/donors that rapidly react upon water into quinone crosslinking functional groups. The redox pair is selected such that curing begins by contact with proton donors (present in water) or induced through an electrochemical voltage gradient. MRT2- Polymer Structure/Biocompatability Structure Activity Relationships will screen polymer backbones and nucleophilic surface groups towards creation of an adhesive platform with broad flexible and tunable material properties. Selection of polymer backbones will focus on yielding water-free, liquid formulations that span the scope of antiviral polyethyleneimine (PEI) coatings to bioresorbable polyesters. Nucleophilic polymer surface groups will be assessed for reaction rates with electrophilic quinones—the reactive crosslinker investigated in MRT1. Hypothesis: Liquid adhesive formulations synthesized with molecular mass dendrimers of 500 – 2,000 Da will crosslink into biorubbers after event initiation. Inherent dendrimer chemical profile combined with on-demand adhesion is exploited for unmet industrial and biomedical needs, such as cationic PEI for antiviral surfaces and Boltorn polyesters for degradable bioadhesives. MRT3- Utility and Risk Structure Activity Relationships will assess the mutagenicity, skin irritation, and viral surface toxicity for future applications in bioadhesives and stick-all antiviral coatings. Congracted GLP laboratories will analyze leachates and surface coatings to prepare a risk portfolio compared against known mutagens and skin sensitizers. Redoxive adhesives with varying densities of immobilized cationic polymers will be screened for antiviral coatings towards unmet needs in personal protection equipment. Hypothesis: Synergistic combination of redox-based crosslinking and judicious selection of polymer backbones yields a new platform of adhesives with novel material properties addressing unmet needs in industrial and biomedical sectors.