Authors: Huanhuan Liu Dandan Tang Rupei Tang Youliang Zhao
Publish Date: 2015/06/22
Volume: 58, Issue: 11, Pages: 1724-1733
Abstract
This study aims at versatile synthesis of 3arm ABCtype A=polyεcaprolactone PCL B=polyNisopropylacrylamide PNIPAM C=polytertbutyl acrylate PtBA or polyacrylic acid PAA miktoarm star copolymers with a reducible disulfide linkage Using 222hydroxymethyl22bromo2methylpropionyloxymethylpropionyloxyethyldisulfanylethyl 4cyano4phenylcarbonothioylthiopentanoate HBCP as a heterotrifunctional initiator consecutive ringopening polymerization ROP of εcaprolactone CL reversible additionfragmentation chain transfer RAFT polymerization of Nisopropylacrylamide NIPAM and atom transfer radical polymerization ATRP of tertbutyl acrylate tBA afforded ABC1 star and followed by a subsequent hydrolysis to give ABC2 star 1H nuclear magnetic resonance 1H NMR and gel permeation chromatography GPC analyses revealed the desired stars and their precursors had wellcontrolled molecular weight and relatively low polydispersity PDI⩽112 As confirmed by GPC analysis the disulfide linkage in ABC1 star could be efficiently cleaved upon reductive stimulus during which the topology was converted from star terpolymer to mixtures of homopolymer B and diblock copolymer AC1 In addition to acting as nanocarriers for stimulitriggered drug delivery systems ABC stars with terminal bromide dithiobenzoate and hydroxyl functionalities are expected to form other reductioncleavable multicomponent copolymers such as BCgraftA m and dendritic graft copolymers via postpolymerization modification Our research affords a straightforward “corefirst” method to construct multifunctional star terpolymers with stimuliresponsive arms and reductionlabile linkage
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