Controlled Delivery and Photopatterning of Mechanical Properties in Polysaccharide Hydrogels Using Vanadium Coordination and Photochemistry.

Incorporation of the transition metal ion V(V) into hydrogels has been used to impart photoresponsive behavior, which was used to tune materials properties during light irradiation. The photoreaction in QHE-cellulose/agarose hydrogels coordinated with vanadium was evidenced by a clear color change of yellow to blue through a green intermediate. This color change was attributed to the reduction of V(V) to V(IV) as described in our previous work.