NIPAm-Based Modification of Poly(L-lysine): A pH-Dependent LCST-Type Thermo-Responsive Biodegradable Polymer

Polymers

Constantinos Tsitsilianis¹  Aggeliki Stamou¹  Hermis Iatrou² 

[1] Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece;Department of Chemistry, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Zografou, 15771 Athens, Greece;

关键词: poly(L-lysine);    N-isopropylacrylamide;    aza-Michael addition reaction;    LCST;    thermo-responsive;    pH-responsive;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym14040802

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Polylysine is a biocompatible, biodegradable, water soluble polypeptide. Thanks to the pendant primary amines it bears, it is susceptible to modification reactions. In this work Poly(L-lysine) (PLL) was partially modified via the effortless free-catalysed aza-Michael addition reaction at room temperature by grafting N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm) moieties onto the amines. The resulting PLL-g-NIPAm exhibited LCST-type thermosensitivity. The LCST can be tuned by the NIPAm content incorporated in the macromolecules. Importantly, depending on the NIPAm content, LCST is highly dependent on pH and ionic strength due to ionization capability of the remaining free lysine residues. PLL-g-NIPAm constitutes a novel biodegradable LCST polymer that could be used as “smart” block in block copolymers and/or terpolymers, of any macromolecular architecture, to design pH/Temperature-responsive self-assemblies (nanocarriers and/or networks) for potential bio-applications.

【 授权许可】

Unknown