Facile, Contolled, Room-Temperature RAFT Polymerization of N-Isopropylacrylamide
Poly (N-isopropyl acrylamide) is a thermoresponsive polymer that has been widely investigated for drug delivery. Herein, we report conditions facilitating the controlled, room-temperature RAFT polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM). The key to success is the appropriate choice of both a sui...
Published in: | Biomacromolecules |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Scholars' Mine
2004
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/matsci_eng_facwork/2271 https://doi.org/10.1021/bm049825h |
Summary: | Poly (N-isopropyl acrylamide) is a thermoresponsive polymer that has been widely investigated for drug delivery. Herein, we report conditions facilitating the controlled, room-temperature RAFT polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM). The key to success is the appropriate choice of both a suitable RAFT chain transfer agent (CTA) and initiating species. We show that the use of 2-dodecylsulfanylthiocarbonyl-sulfanyl-2-methyl propionic acid, a trithiocarbonate RAFT CTA, in conjunction with the room-temperature azo initiator 2,2′-azobis(4-methoxy-2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile), in DMF, at 25 °C, yields conditions leading to NIPAM homopolymerizations which bear all of the characteristics of a controlled/"living" polymerization. We also demonstrate facile size exclusion chromatographic analysis of PNIPAM samples in DMF at 60 °C, directly on aliquots withdrawn during the polymerizations, which avoids the problems previously reported in the literature. |
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