A novel series of pyrene containing thiophene monomers TPM1–5 were synthesized and fully characterized by FTIR, MS, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy; their thermal properties were determined by TGA and DSC. These monomers were chemically polymerized using FeCl₃ as oxidizing agent to give the corresponding oligomers TPO1–5) and they were electrochemically polymerized to obtain the corresponding polymer films deposited onto ITO. All oligomers exhibited good thermal stability, with T₁₀ values between 255 and 299 °C, and T_g values varying from 36 to 39 °C. The monomers showed an absorption band at 345 nm due to the S₀ → S₂ transition of the pyrene group, whereas the fluorescence spectra showed a broad emission band arising from the “monomer” emission at 375–420 nm. The obtained polymers exhibited two absorption bands at 244 and 354 nm, due to the polythiophene and the pyrene moieties, respectively. The fluorescence spectra of polymers showed a broad “monomer” emission at 380–420 nm followed by an intense excimer emission band at 570 nm, due to the presence of intramolecular pyrene-pyrene interactions in these compounds.

The toxicity of the poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM) caused by the peripheral amino groups has been a limitation for their use as drug carriers in clinical applications. In this work, we completely modified the periphery of PAMAM dendrimer generation 1 (PAMAM G1) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) units through the Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) to obtain the PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer with high yield. The PAMAM G1-β-CD was characterized by ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR and mass spectrometry studies. Moreover, the PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer showed remarkably higher water solubility than native β-CD. Finally, we studied the toxicity of PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer in four different cell lines, human breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231), human cervical adenocarcinoma cancer cells (HeLa) and pig kidney epithelial cells (LLC-PK1). The PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer did not present any cytotoxicity in cell lines tested which shows the potentiality of this new class of dendrimers.

In this paper, we report the synthesis of acrylamide hydrogels (net-AAm) reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) using gamma radiation, a powerful tool to obtain crosslinked polymers without the use of chemical initiators and crosslinking agents. Some slight changes in the chemical structure and crystallinity of CNCs took place during gamma irradiation without affecting the nanofiller function. In fact, cellulose nanocrystals had a notable influence over the swelling and mechanical properties on the reinforced hydrogels (net-AAm/CNC), obtaining more rigid material since the Young compression modulus increased from 11 kPa for unreinforced net-AAm to 30 kPa for net-AAm/CNC (4% w/w). Moreover, the studies of retention and release of ciprofloxacin (Cx), a quinolone antibiotic drug, showed that reinforced hydrogels were able to load large amounts of ciprofloxacin (1.2–2.8 mg g⁻¹) but they distributed 100% of the drug very quickly (<100 min). Despite this, they exhibited better mechanical properties than the control sample, allowing their handling, and could be used as wound dressings of first response because they can absorb the exudate and at the same time deliver an antibiotic drug directly over the injury.