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New Thiol‐Responsive Mono‐Cleavable Block Copolymer Micelles Labeled with Single Disulfides
Author(s) -
Khorsand Sourkohi Behnoush,
Schmidt Rolf,
Oh Jung Kwon
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201100372
Subject(s) - copolymer , micelle , atom transfer radical polymerization , amphiphile , polymer chemistry , chemistry , polymerization , thiol , gel permeation chromatography , dynamic light scattering , ethylene oxide , propylene oxide , materials science , organic chemistry , polymer , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , aqueous solution
Thiol‐responsive symmetric triblock copolymers having single disulfide linkages in the middle blocks (called mono‐cleavable block copolymers, ss‐ABP 2 ) were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization in the presence of a disulfide‐labeled difunctional Br‐initiator. These brush‐like triblock copolymers consist of a hydrophobic polyacrylate block having pendent oligo(propylene oxide) and a hydrophilic polymethacrylate block having pendent oligo(ethylene oxide). Gel permeation chromatography and 1 H NMR results confirmed the synthesis of well‐defined mono‐cleavable block copolymers and revealed that polymerizations were well controlled. Because of amphiphilic nature, these copolymers self‐assembled to form colloidally stable micelles above critical micellar concentration of 0.032 mg · mL −1 . In response to reductive reactions, disulfides in thiol‐responsive micelles were cleaved. Atomic force microscopy and dynamic light scattering analysis suggested that the cleavage of disulfides caused dissociation of micelles to smaller‐sized assembled structures in water. Moreover, in a biomedical perspective, the mono‐cleavable block copolymer micelles are not cytotoxic and thus biocompatible.