Functional Polycarbonate: Synthesis And Functionalization

With the development of drug.delivery system and tissue engineering, more attention was paid to biodegradable material for its unique properties such as biocompatibility and biodegradability, which have been used as drug controlled release carriers, bioabsorbable sutures, bone fixing materials and so on. Aliphatic polycarbonates are important biodegradable materials for their extraordinary physiochemical and biological properties. Furthermore, polycarbonates with special functionalizations can be prepared by introducing functional groups, which widely extend their applications.In this paper, six-membered cyclic carbonate,5,5-dibromomethyltrimethylene carbonate (DBTC) was firstly synthesized and copolymerized withε-caprolactone (CL) in the presence of Sn(Oct)2 as catalyst, preparing poly(DBTC-co-CL) copolymers. Then azidation reaction was carried out between poly(DBTC-co-CL) and sodium azide giving poly(DATC-co-CL) with pendant azide groups. Finally, poly(DTC-co-CL)-g-PEG biodegradable amphiphilic polymer brushes were prepared by clicking alkyne mPEG onto the poly(DATC-co-CL) backbone. The self-assembly behaviors of amphiphilic polymer brushes poly(DTC-co-CL)-g-PEG were investigated in detail, which have potential applications in drug delivery.On the other hand, poly(DBTC-co-CL) was quaternized by alkyl tertiary amines to prepare cationic polymers which can be used as biodegradable antibacterial materials. The antibacterial agents display fine antibacterial ability to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus bacteria.