Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Nano Six-arms of (polylactide-dipentaerythritol)-block-N-hydroxyethyl Acrylamide and N,N-dimethylamino Ethyl Methacrylate Biocopolymers by Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Abstract

Novel block biocopolymers were made by copolymerizing the prepared polylactide-dipenta-erythritol macromonomer with two different monomers, N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEAA) and N,N-dimethylamino ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA), with an activator generated by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), to have a different duplicating unit of 10, 25, 50, and 100. ATRP employs a copper(I) bromide (CuBr) catalyst system with N, N, N′, N′′, N′′-pentamethyl diethylenetriamine (PMDETA). Different spectroscopic and analytical methods used for characterization of the prepared biocopolymers, such as FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and GPC, showed that they had narrow dispersity with controllable molecular weight and were accompanied by nanostructures as examined by SEM technique on all biocopolymers, confirming the correctness of the expected structures of biocopolymers. The shape and size of the produced polymeric nanoparticles were determined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and they were developed using the Image-J application.