Synthesis and characterization of novel biodegradable water dispersed poly(ether-urethane)s and their MWCNT-AS nanocomposites functionalized with aspartic acid as dispersing agent

Abstract

New biodegradable poly(ether-urethane)s (PEU)s were synthesized via the reaction of L-leucine anhydride cyclo-peptide, polyethylene glycol-1000 and hexamethylene diisocyanate. Then, they were end-functionalized with aspartic acid (AS) as a dispersing agent and were dispersed in water. MWCNTs were also functionalized by AS under microwave irradiation. Polymer/MWCNT-AS composites and polymer/MWCNT-AS water dispersed composites were prepared through an ultrasoundassisted method. We have designed these PEUs with two different structural architectures (PA1and PA2) which can be readily dispersed in water (PA1-D and PA2-D). The structure and properties of the polymers, MWCNTs-AS and PEUs/MWCNTs-AS composites were investigated by FTIR and NMR spectroscopy methods and FE-SEM, TEM and TGA techniques. The particle sizes of the resulting PA1-D and PA2-D dispersions were in the range of 200-300 nm. The results showed that by increasing MWCNT-AS loading, the degradation rate and particle sizes of the dispersed composites decreased, while thermal stability and dispersion stability of the composite systems increased. The degradation tests of polymers and their composites in PBS at 37 °C after 10 days showed weight losses ranging from 23 to 44 and 17-37%, respectively. The cytotoxicity study of polymers using the direct-contact test on L929 mouse fibroblast cell line showed no toxicity. Other properties such as thermal stability, dispersion's particle size, degradation rate and morphology of the composites were studied, and the effect of simultaneous dispersion of MWCNTs-AS and PEUs in water on the properties of the resulting mixtures was studied. We suggest that these polymers have tunable properties which may potentially be considered for drug carriers' studies.

Orthogonal synthesis and modification of polymer materials

“…Yokozawa and coworkers, for the first time, synthesized rod‐coil block copolymers using ATRP and chain‐growth condensation polymerization (CGCP) 76 . Prior to their research, coil‐coil block copolymers carrying condensation polymers 77 as one of the segments had been synthesized. There was a growing interest in making rod‐coil block copolymers carrying rigid polymer segments with high persistence lengths as these copolymers could self‐assemble into peculiar nanostructures that could not be fabricated by self‐assembly of coil‐coil block copolymers 78–80 .…”

Application of Biodegradable and Biocompatible Nanocomposites in Electronics: Current Status and Future Directions

“…Biodegradable electronics may be an effective solution for E-waste management, since they can be degraded or dissolved into the surrounding environment with no pollution. This endows the electronics with environmental safety and disposability [6,7,8], by simultaneously decreasing the cost for recycling operations and the health risks associated with harmful emissions [9,10,11,12].…”

Waterborne poly(urethane-urea)s films as a sustained release system for ketoconazole

“…Nevertheless, incorporation of lipophilic drugs in dispersions of WPU or WPUU becomes a challenge because of their low aqueous solubility (21). Currently, a series of PU containing amphiphilic chains have been investigated because of their ability to self-assemble in aqueous solution, forming micelles composed of hydrophobic segments as inner core and hydrophilic segments as outer layer (22)(23)(24).…”