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Polyaspartamide–Polylactide Graft Copolymers with Tunable Properties for the Realization of Fluorescent Nanoparticles for Imaging
Author(s) -
Craparo Emanuela Fabiola,
Porsio Barbara,
Mauro Nicolò,
Giammona Gaetano,
Cavallaro Gennara
Publication year - 2015
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.201500154
Subject(s) - copolymer , ethylene glycol , polymer chemistry , materials science , rhodamine b , amphiphile , nanoparticle , peg ratio , fluorescence , polymer , chemistry , organic chemistry , nanotechnology , composite material , catalysis , physics , finance , photocatalysis , quantum mechanics , economics
Here, the synthesis and the characterization of novel amphiphilic graft copolymers with tunable properties, useful in obtaining polymeric fluorescent nanoparticles for application in imaging, are described. These copolymers are obtained by chemical conjugation of rhodamine B (RhB) moieties, polylactic acid (PLA), and O‐(2‐aminoethyl)‐O′‐methyl poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) on α,β‐poly( N ‐2‐hydroxyethyl)‐ d,l ‐aspartamide (PHEA). In particular, PHEA is first functionalized with RhB to obtain PHEA–RhB with a derivatization degree in RhB (DD RhB ) equal to 0.55 mol%. By varying the reaction conditions, different amounts of PLA are grafted on PHEA–RhB to obtain PHEA‐RhB‐PLA with DD PLA equal to 1.9, 4.0, and 6.2 mol%. Then, PEG chains are grafted on PHEA‐RhB‐PLA derivatives to obtain PHEA‐RhB‐PLA‐PEG graft copolymers. The preparation of polymeric fluorescent nanoparticles with tunable properties and spherical shape is described by using PHEA‐RhB‐PLA‐PEG with DD in PLA and PEG equal to 4.0 and 4.9 mol%, by following easily scaling up processes, such as emulsion‐solvent evaporation and high pressure homogenization (HPH)‐solvent evaporation techniques.