Fullerene End‐Capped Biodegradable Poly(ε‐caprolactone)

Abstract

Fullerene capped poly(ε‐caprolactone)s (PCLs), namely single‐ and double‐fullerene end‐capped PCLs with different fullerene content, were successfully synthesized. The effect of the fullerene end on the crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of the PCL was studied. The aggregation behavior of the fullerene moieties at the end of the PCL chain was also studied. It was found that the aggregated fullerenes have two kinds of effect on the crystallization behavior of the PCL i.e., confinement effect and nucleating effect. The fullerene content shows a certain balance between the confinement effect and the nucleating effect on the crystallization rate of PCL. It was also found that the mechanical properties of the fullerene end‐capped PCLs are strongly related to the content of fullerene and the mode of end‐capping style: either single or double end‐capping.magnified image

Degradation of a fullerene end-capped polycaprolactone by lipase AK

“…So far a lot of fullerene lipids have been reported, including various fullerene polyesters [9,10,[19][20][21]. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the enzymatic reaction of fullerene lipids by lipase.…”

“…Various specific biological activities of fullerenes have been reported, such as radical scavenging, DNA cleavage, enzyme inhibition, tumor cell killing and neuronal protection [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Among numerous derivatives investigated, fullerene polymers such as fullerene polyesters have received much attention [8], and recently, Kai et al [9,10] functionalized the parent C 60 cage with polycaprolactone (PCL) and examined the effects of fullerene cage on the physico-chemical properties of PCL.…”

Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane‐ and Fullerene‐End‐Capped Poly(ε‐caprolactone)

“…[59] The DPCL was synthesized with butanediol as the initiator. Then, they were reacted with chlorobutyryl chloride to afford chloro-ended PCL.…”

“…The area of the crystallization peak is noticeably decreased, due to the confinement effect of fullerene. [59] This phenomenon has been thoroughly investigated in our previous study. After incorporation of fullerene into the PCL chain, the fullerene moieties aggregates into small particles, which show two kinds of effect on the crystallization of PCL: firstly, the nucleating effect; and, secondly, the confinement effect, that is, the fullerene moieties at the end of the FPCLP chain have a retardant effect on the crystallization of PCL in FPCLP.…”

“…[59] The PCL with both the hydroxyl end groups was reacted with chlorobutyryl chloride in dry dichloromethane with the catalyst, pyridine, at room temperature, for 24 h, affording chloro-ended PCL. The chloro-ended PCL was reacted with sodium azide in dry DMF at 65 8C for 24 h with the catalyst tetrabutylammonium iodide to afford azide-ended PCL.…”