Defined High Molar Mass Poly(2-Oxazoline)s

Bryn D. Monnery*, Valentin V. Jerca, Ondrej Sedlacek, Bart Verbraeken, Rachel Cavill, Richard Hoogenboom*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)s (PAOx) are regaining interest for biomedical applications. However, their full potential is hampered by the inability to synthesise uniform high-molar mass PAOx. In this work, we proposed alternative intrinsic chain transfer mechanisms based on 2-oxazoline and oxazolinium chain-end tautomerisation and derived improved polymerization conditions to suppress chain transfer, allowing the synthesis of highly defined poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) s up to ca. 50 kDa (dispersity (D) <1.05) and defined polymers up to at least 300 kDa (D <1.2). The determination of the chain transfer constants for the polymerisations hinted towards the tautomerisation of the oxazolinium chain end as most plausible cause for chain transfer. Finally, the method was applied for the preparation of up to 60 kDa molar mass copolymers of 2-ethyl2- oxazoline and 2-methoxycarbonylethyl-2-oxazoline.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)15400-15404
Number of pages5
JournalAngewandte Chemie-International Edition
Volume57
Issue number47
Early online date10 Oct 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • cationic polymerisation
  • polymers
  • ring-opening polymerisation
  • tautomerisation
  • CYCLIC IMINO ETHERS
  • POLY(2-ETHYL-2-OXAZOLINE) NANODOTS
  • SOLAR-CELLS
  • POLYMERIZATION
  • TEMPERATURE
  • 2-METHYL-2-OXAZOLINE
  • MACROMONOMERS
  • TELECHELICS

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