Al-Hashimi and Bazzi engage Qatar-based institutions in polymer research
Published Sep 16, 2019
Dr. Mohammed Al-Hashimi and Dr. Hassan S. Bazzi recently published an article in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (impact factor of 8.45) in collaboration with three other Qatar-based institutions: Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, the Qatar Environmental & Energy Research Institute at Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Qatar University.
The research team (support from QNRF project NPRP X-095-1-024) reported the first example of green, light-responsive, CO-releasing polymeric materials (CORMats) derived from ring-opening metathesis polymerization. The compound releases carbon monoxide (CO), a tasteless, odorless and poisonous gas commonly known as a “silent killer” because of its extraordinary binding affinity to hemoglobin, which is more than 200 times higher than that of oxygen.
However, CO is an important biological gasotransmitter in living cells, making it an important cell-signaling molecule with substantial therapeutic applications, such as protection from inflammation, acute lung injury and injuries associated with balloon angioplasty. The article reports the design of CORMats using a simple polymeric process without the use of electrospinning method, and the polymer gives dual response, such as colorimetric and turn-on luminescence response upon CO release, thus allowing the visualization of CO release in cellular targets. Furthermore, stretchable materials using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) strips based on the polymer material were fabricated to afford P-PTFE, which can be used as a simple, inexpensive and portable CO storage “bandage” with insignificant cytotoxicity against human embryonic kidney cells.
