Poly(ε-caprolactone)-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes and Their Biodegradation Properties

Abstract

Biodegradable poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) (PCL) has been covalently grafted onto the surfaces of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) by the “grafting from” approach based on in‐situ ring‐opening polymerization of ϵ‐caprolactone. The grafted PCL content can be controlled easily by adjusting the feed ratio of monomer to MWNT‐supported macroinitiators (MWNT‐OH). The resulting products have been characterized with Fourier‐transform IR (FTIR), NMR, and Raman spectroscopies, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After PCL was coated onto MWNT surfaces, core/shell structures with nanotubes as the “hard” core and the hairy polymer layer as the “soft” shell are formed, especially for MWNTs coated with a high density of polymer chains. Such a polymer shell promises good solubility/dispersibility of the MWNT–PCL nanohybrids in low‐boiling‐point organic solvents such as chloroform and tetrahydrofuran. Biodegradation experiments have shown that the PCL grafted onto MWNTs can be completely enzymatically degraded within 4 days in a phosphate buffer solution in the presence of pseudomonas (PS) lipase, and the carbon nanotubes retain their tubelike morphologies, as observed by SEM and TEM. The results present possible applications for these biocompatible PCL‐functionalized CNTs in bionanomaterials, biomedicine, and artificial bones.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes nanocomposites: preparation and characterizations

“…anchoring the matrix polymer on the carbon nanotubes) before using them as reinforcements for the polymer matrix. Among those methods, oxidatively generating carboxylic acid groups on the surface of the carbon nanotubes and then covalently linking oligomers or polymers with these carboxylic acid groups is an effective skill to improve the compatibility of hybrids [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Generally, the linkage of small or large molecules to the CNTs by covalent methods is more stable and effective than the noncovalent ones.…”

Carbon Nanotubes – Imprinted Polymers: Hybrid Materials for Analytical Applications

“…et al 2006;Liu I.C. et al, 2004), ring-opening polymerization (Zeng H.L. et al, 2006b;Qu et al, 2005;Buffa et al, 2005;Gao J.B. et al, 2005) and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) (Kong H. et al, 2004;Qin et al, 2004b;Yao et al, 2003) have been employed to functionalize CNTs with polymers.…”

Surface-Initiated Titanium-Mediated Coordination Polymerization from Catalyst-Functionalized Single and Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

“…For grafting PCL and PLLA, the most commonly used catalyst is Sn(Oct) 2 . Zeng et al 20 and Buffa et al 21 have used Sn(Oct) 2 to grow PCL chains from CNTs while Chen et al 28 have used it for the synthesis of PLLA functionalized MWNTs. In situ polycondensation 29 of L-lactic acid with MWNTs is another technique that has been employed for the same purpose.…”

“…Recently, a few groups have investigated the CNT surface initiated ring-opening 20,21 (ROP) and ring-opening metathesis polymerization 22 (ROMP). These methods are important since the metal catalysts are tolerant to polar, apolar and charged functional groups.…”