Self‐organization of amphiphilic poly[2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine] carrying tocopheryl moieties as terminal groups

Poly[2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine](PMPC) with one pendant tocopheryl moiety at the polymer terminus (PMPC‐Toco) was prepared by the radical polymerization of 2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) initiated with 4,4′‐azobis[(3‐tocopheryl)‐4‐cyanopentanoate] in the presence of 2‐mercaptoethanol as a chain transfer reagent. The self‐organization of PMPC‐Toco was analyzed with fluorescence and 1 H‐NMR measurements. The critical micelle concentrations of PMPC‐Toco with [η] = 0.25, 0.13, 0.10, and 0.05 dL g −1 were found to be 200, 100, 100, and 90 mg L −1 , respectively. The blood compatibility of PMPC‐Toco was evaluated from the Michaelis constant (K m ) for the enzymatic reaction of thrombin and a synthetic substrate, S ‐2238, in the presence of PMPC‐Toco. The K m values were 0.21, 0.23, 0.36, and 0.21 for PMPC‐Toco‐1, 2, 3, and PMPC ([η] = 0.56 dL g −1 ), respectively. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009