Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane as a Polarity Mediator and Reinforced Nanofiller for Fabricating Robust and Hierarchical Porous Film for Cell Bioengineering

A hierarchical porous polymer film that can provide a balance of mechanical properties and specific surface areas and sustain cell functions has become a major target for material scientists and bioengineers in the past decade. However, the limited availability of materials that exhibit high mechanical performance and easily form hierarchical porous structures hinder the progress in practical application. Here, we show the design of a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) hybrid polymer by incorporating a bi-functional glycidyl-propyl POSS (G-POSS) into the epoxy polymer backbone, in which POSS functions as both a nanofiller to reinforce the mechanical performance and as the polarity mediator to induce self-assembly of the polymer chains into a three-dimensional (3D) connected porous structure. Nanoindentation shows that the incorporation of POSS leads to a 25 and 36% increase in modulus and hardness, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy results show that POSS helps tune the hydrophobicity of the polymer and assists in the interface assembly, allowing easy formation of a densely packed two-dimensional or 3D hierarchical porous structure. Culture of mouse embryonic fibroblast cells demonstrates that the hybrid polymer scaffold provides prominent advantages ranging from enhanced cell adhesion to proliferation. Particularly, the 3D hierarchical porous film allows good nutrient supply and cell communication, which better mimics the in vivo microenvironment with less cell morphology change during cell proliferation. Hence, the successful integration of high material strength and easy formation of an interconnected porous structure shows that POSS hybrid polymers have strong potential for applications in the fabrication of cell culture platforms and future translation in tissue repair and regeneration.