Journal
POLYMER CHEMISTRY
Volume 11, Issue 2, Pages 337-343Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c9py00385a
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51722302, 21674054]
- Qingdao Innovation Leader Talent Program (3rd)
- Taishan Scholars Program
- Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China [ZR2017ZB0105]
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Photoresponsive polymers have been receiving tremendous attention for many applications. Here, we report a new family of photoresponsive polypeptoid-based diblock copolymers PEG-b-poly(N-(S-(o-nitrobenzyl)-thioethyl) glycine) (PEG-b-PNSN) by ring-opening polymerization (ROP). The polymerization is well-controlled and a series of copolymers have been obtained with narrow polydispersity. We demonstrate that the cleavage degree of the o-nitrobenzyl (NB) group can reach 73% with the irradiation time increasing up to 6 hours. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of photoresponsive polypeptoids prepared by ROP. Depending on the chain length of PNSN, the PEG-b-PNSN diblock copolymers can self-assemble into various morphologies, including spheres, short cylinders and vesicles. More importantly, the thiol groups generated by UV-irradiation can be spontaneously oxidized into disulfide bonds, which behave as cross-linkers to stabilize the nanostructures with constant morphologies. Furthermore, this oxidation process is reversible in the presence of the reductive reagent glutathione (GSH), resulting in reversible self-crosslinking assemblies. The obtained photoresponsive polypeptoid copolymers are ideal candidates for smart polymeric materials in applications of nanomedicine and nanotechnology.
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