Issue 4, 2013

Synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers with a dendritic polyethylene core and poly(ethylene oxide) arms and their self-assembled nanostructures

Abstract

A tandem synthetic strategy combining chain walking polymerization and azide–alkyne click chemistry was successfully used to prepare amphiphilic copolymers with a dendritic polyethylene core and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) arms. Dendritic polyethylene (DPE) tethered with multi-reactive hydroxyl groups (DPE-(OH)11) was synthesized by copolymerization of ethylene and trimethylsilyl-protected 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate using an α-diimine palladium catalyst under low ethylene pressure of 0.1 atm. Alkynyl-terminated DPE (DPE-([triple bond, length as m-dash])11) was quantitatively obtained by esterification reaction of DPE-(OH)11 with pentynoic acid. Using a “grafting to” technique, PEO precursors with a terminated azido group were introduced to the DPE core with high efficiency by azide–alkyne click coupling reaction. The self-assembly behaviors of the obtained core–shell amphiphiles in selective solvents including water and hexane were studied by TEM, AFM and fluorescence. Supramolecular vesicles, unimolecular micelles, and multi-molecular micelles were observed, which is dependent on selective solvent as well as number and chain length of PEO arm.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers with a dendritic polyethylene core and poly(ethylene oxide) arms and their self-assembled nanostructures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Oct 2012
Accepted
30 Oct 2012
First published
31 Oct 2012

Polym. Chem., 2013,4, 1107-1114

Synthesis of amphiphilic copolymers with a dendritic polyethylene core and poly(ethylene oxide) arms and their self-assembled nanostructures

H. Gao, Y. Tang, Z. Hu, Q. Guan, X. Shi, F. Zhu and Q. Wu, Polym. Chem., 2013, 4, 1107 DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20831H

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