Synthesis of stimuli-sensitive copolymers by RAFT polymerization: potential candidates as drug delivery systems

• Autor(a) principal: Tebaldi,Marli L.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Leal,Debora Abrantes, Montoro,Sergio R., Petzhold,Cesar
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Materials research (São Carlos. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-14392014000700031
• topic: poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate); reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization; poly(methylmethacrylate); poly(vinylcaprolactam)

Poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethylmethacrylate-b-methymethacrylate) (PDMAEMA-b-PMMA) poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethylmethacrylate-b-vinylcaprolactam-b-(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA-b-PVCL-b-PDMAEMA) and poly(vinylcaprolactam-b-(2-(dimethylamino)ethylmethacrylate-b-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCL-b-PDMAEMA-b-PVCL) block copolymers were obtained by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, and the effect of the solution pH on the particle size was investigated. In the case of PDMAEMA-b-PMMA, PDMAEMA was first synthesized using 2-cyanoprop-2-yl dithiobenzoate (CPDB) as a chain transfer agent (CTA), which was subsequently used for the RAFT polymerization of MMA. The triblock copolymers were obtained using PDMAEMA or PVCL as macro-CTAs prepared using dibenzyl trithiocarbonate (DBTTC) as a bifunctional RAFT agent. The structure and formation of the copolymers was confirmed through ¹H NMR and SEC analysis. The particle size varied considerably depending on the pH of the aqueous solutions of copolymers indicating that these materials could be potential candidates for biomedical applications.