157
Views
4
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Synthesis and Self-Assembly of New Poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(ester-sulfide) Dendrimers

, &
Pages 1113-1120
Received 01 May 2013
Accepted 01 May 2013
Published online: 20 Sep 2013
 

The design and synthesis of novel copolymers which consist of a linear methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) block and a dendrimeric poly(ester-sulfide) block with potential applications in drug delivery are described. The copolymers bear hydroxyl or alkene functional groups and were prepared via a divergent approach using readily available methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG), 4-pentenoyl chloride and 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol as building blocks. One copolymer (G3.5) with alkene chain ends was functionalized with N-acetyl-L-cysteine. The compounds prepared in this work were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF. In the preparation of these dendrimers no repetitive protection-deprotection cycles were necessary, and the purification steps consisted of only washing the reaction mixture with aqueous solutions and precipitation of the product in diethyl ether, allowing easy access to these polymers. Micelle formation for polymers of generations 3.0 and 3.5 was investigated by encapsulation of the fluorescent probe pyrene. Micelle size for the above generations was determined by dynamic light scattering.

Acknowledgments

Reza Sedaghat-Herati acknowledges the Missouri State University for a summer fellowship. We also thank Mr. Juan Reyes-Reveles for help with dynamic light scattering studies.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.