Faiza Bettahar

Hydrogels present a great number of advantages, such as their swelling capacity or their capability to mimic tissues, which make them very interesting biomaterials. However, one of their main disadvantages is their lack of good mechanical properties, which could limit some of their applications. Several strategies have been carried out to develop hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties, but many of the suggested synthetic pathways to improve this property are expensive and time consuming. In this work, we studied an easy synthetic path to produce tough hydrogels based on different maleic anhydride copolymers crosslinked with polyethylenglycol. The effect of the comonomers in the mechanical properties has been studied, their excellent mechanical properties, good swelling behavior and thermal stability being remarkable. In addition, in order to evaluate their possible applications as scaffolds or in wound healing applications, microsized fibers have been fabricated by electrospinning.

Polycarbazole and its derivatives have been extensively used for the last three decades, although the interest in these materials briefly decreased. However, the increasing demand for conductive polymers for several applications such as light emitting diodes (OLEDs), capacitators or memory devices, among others, has renewed the interest in carbazole-based materials. In this review, the synthetic routes used for the development of carbazole-based polymers have been summarized, reviewing the main synthetic methodologies, namely chemical and electrochemical polymerization. In addition, the applications reported in the last decade for carbazole derivatives are analysed. The emergence of flexible and wearable electronic devices as a part of the internet of the things could be an important driving force to renew the interest on carbazole-based materials, being conductive polymers capable to respond adequately to requirement of these devices.