Core reactive biodegradable multiarm star polymers

Abstract

Functionalizable macromolecules have attracted increasing attention as polymeric materials due to their wide application in material and biological sciences. Although a lot of work has been done in this area, little attention has been paid towards the synthesis of both functionalizable and biodegradable polymers. In this study, we synthesized functional biodegradable polymers with multiarm star architecture. The number of arms in the final polymer can be pre-determined by using an appropriate multifunctional initiator core. To meet this goal, core functional polyester dendrons containing furan protected maleimide group were synthesized as initiators of multiarm star polymers. DL-Lactide was chosen as biodegradable monomer because of advantages and widespread of application area of biomedical applications. Multiarm star polymers were produced via Ring Opening Polymerization (ROP) which provides good control on the molecular weight and polydispersity. After the polymerization, furan protected maleimide core of star polymer was deprotected to their thiol reactive form via retro Diels Alder reaction. Thiol containing molecule was attached to demonstrate reactivity of the polymer core.