Issue 3, 2016

Dual responsive polymeric nanoparticles prepared by direct functionalization of polylactic acid-based polymers via graft-from ring opening metathesis polymerization

Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA) has found widespread use in plastics and in biomedical applications due to its biodegradability into natural benign products. However, PLA-based materials remain limited in usefulness due to difficulty of incorporating functional groups into the polymer backbone. In this paper, we report a strategy for PLA functionalization that establishes the preparation of highly derivatized materials in which ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) is employed as a graft-from polymerization technique utilizing a norbornene-modified handle incorporated into the PLA backbone. As a demonstration of this new synthetic methodology, a PLA-derived nanoparticle bearing imidazole units protected with a photolabile group was prepared. The morphology of this material could be controllably altered in response to exposure of UV light or acidic pH as a stimulus. We anticipate that this graft-from approach to derivatization of PLA could find broad use in the development of modified, biodegradable PLA-based materials.

Graphical abstract: Dual responsive polymeric nanoparticles prepared by direct functionalization of polylactic acid-based polymers via graft-from ring opening metathesis polymerization

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
20 Sep 2015
Accepted
22 Oct 2015
First published
06 Nov 2015

Chem. Commun., 2016,52, 567-570

Author version available

Dual responsive polymeric nanoparticles prepared by direct functionalization of polylactic acid-based polymers via graft-from ring opening metathesis polymerization

K. M. Veccharelli, V. K. Tong, J. L. Young, J. Yang and N. C. Gianneschi, Chem. Commun., 2016, 52, 567 DOI: 10.1039/C5CC07882B

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