October 25-27, 2015 - Bram Zoetebier has been awarded a Journal of Materials Chemistry B Poster Prize at the international Symposiuim on Stimuli-Responsive Materials – Santa Rosa, California, USA
Stimulus-responsive gels attract much attention due to their wide applicability in areas ranging from controlled release to actuators or artificial muscles. Here we describe the synthesis of a polyferrocenylsilane (PFS) polyanion hydrogel, where crosslinks were formed between strained alkynes and azide groups in a copper-free Huisgen cycloaddition reaction, and its use in the in-situ formation of palladium nanoparticles. These organometallic hydrogels display a reversible collapse and reswelling upon chemical oxidation and reduction as they are switched between a zwitterionic and a polyanionic state.