Recently, poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazolines) (PAOx) have found their way into biomedical applications. PAOx have PEG-like properties regarding 'stealth' behaviour and biocompatibility. However, in contrast to PEG, PAOx-polymers are free to functionalize in both side chains and end groups which greatly increases the scope of these polymers over PEG. In the current study, PAOx co-polymers were synthesized by living cationic ring opening polymerization (LCROP) using both methylester functionalized monomers (MestOx) and n-propyl functionalized monomers (n-PropOx). The resulting polymers were postmodified towards amine and NHS-ester functional polymers (Figure 1). Interestingly, these nPropOx-based co-polymers exhibit lower critical solution temperature behaviour in water (Figure 2), which is dependent on both the polymer architecture and composition (f.e. the ratio between hydrophobic/hydrophilic groups, Mn) and external factors (concentration, pH, salt). In this work, the synthesis and thermal solution properties of these copolymers is discussed in view of possible biomedical applications.-Figure 1: Synthesis of nPropOx-based co-polymers-Figure 2: LCST-behavior of P(nPropOx-COOH) copolymers in MQ (5 mg/mL)

Synthesis of thermoresponsive poly(2-oxazoline) polymers for biomedical applications

248th National Meeting (2014)

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