Efficient Synthesis of Single-Chain Polymer Nanoparticles via Amide Formation

Abstract EN

Single-chain technology (SCT) allows the transformation of individual polymer chains to folded/collapsed unimolecular soft nanoparticles.

In this work we contribute to the enlargement of the SCT toolbox by demonstrating the efficient synthesis of single-chain polymer nanoparticles (SCNPs) via intrachain amide formation.

In particular, we exploit cross-linking between active methylene groups and isocyanate moieties as powerful “click” chemistry driving force for SCNP construction.

By employing poly(methyl methacrylate)- (PMMA-) based copolymers bearing β-ketoester units distributed randomly along the copolymer chains and bifunctional isocyanate cross-linkers, SCNPs were successfully synthesized at r.t.

under appropriate reaction conditions.

Characterization of the resulting SCNPs was carried out by means of a combination of techniques including size exclusion chromatography (SEC), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and elemental analysis (EA).