Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization in Aqueous Media Using a Macroinitiator Approach

Jeffrey C. Foster, Spyridon Varlas, Lewis D. Blackman, Lucy A. Arkinstall, Rachel K. O'Reilly

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)
402 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Water-soluble and amphiphilic polymers are of great interest to industry and academia, as they can be used in applications such as biomaterials and drug delivery. Whilst ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) is a fast and functional group tolerant methodology for the synthesis of a wide range of polymers, its full potential for the synthesis of water-soluble polymers has yet to be realized. To address this, we report a general strategy for the synthesis of block copolymers in aqueous milieu using a commercially available ROMP catalyst and a macroinitiator approach. This allows for excellent control in the preparation of block copolymers in water. If the second monomer is chosen such that it forms a water-insoluble polymer, polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) occurs and a variety of self-assembled nano-object morphologies can be accessed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)10672-10676
Number of pages5
JournalAngewandte Chemie (International Edition)
Volume57
Issue number33
Early online date6 Jul 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Aug 2018

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