What is it about?
In this article, the branched VP copolymers colloids in water were used to fabricate the C60/copolymer composite for the first time. The choose of polymer objects are determined, first of all, by their ability to aggregate in water due to diphilic nature, the macromolecule size and biocompatibility.
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Why is it important?
For biomedical applications it is very important to make polymer composites soluble in water and similar media (alcohols, etc.) with stable colloid solutions. Therein, the solubility of B0/C60 (1:2, 2:1), B5/C60 (1:1, 2:1), and B12/C60 (1:1) composites isolated from water and toluene have been examined in water and ethanol, which are precipitators of fullerene in the respect to their solubility in chloroform that is a good solvent of the copolymers.
Perspectives
C60 copolymers was converted in water-soluble colloid state and can be used in biomedical applications as photosensitizers for photodynamic cancer therapy.
Evgeny Kabachkov
Institute of the Problems of Chemical Physics Russian Academy of Sciences
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Synthesis and characterization of C60
-based composites of amphiphilic N
-vinylpyrrolidone/triethylene glycol dimethacrylate copolymers, Polymer Composites, November 2013, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/pc.22788.
You can read the full text:
Resources
The optical microphotograph of the composite based on B5 copolymer (2:1) isolated from water. x200
Microphotograph shows the structure of C60 in the B5-based composite isolated from water on larger scale. The average size of spherical aggregates in ordered chain-like structures is about 10 microns.
The optical microphotograph of the composite based on B5 copolymer (2:1) isolated from water. x100
Microphotograph shows the structure of C60 in the B5-based composite isolated from water on larger scale. The average size of spherical aggregates in ordered chain-like structures is about 10 microns. The fullerene was also encapsulated in L1 and L3 homopolymers, which differ in content of -SC10H21 groups in polymer chains and the ability to aggregate in water. According to gravimetric data, over 90% of L1 and L3 polymer remains in water. Polymer composites based on L1, isolated from water, have a bright cream color, while L3-based composites were colored more intensively. Obviously, L3 homopolymer encapsulates more C60 compared with L1 in these experiments.
Synthesis and characterization of C60-based composites of amphiphilic N-vinylpyrrolidone/triethylene glycol dimethacrylate copolymers
It was found that under mixing of aqueous solutions of copolymers and toluene solutions of C60 two types of polymer composites can be produced with different matrix structure, the fullerene content and an aggregation degree. The dimethacrylate enriched macromolecules migrate to toluene and the VP units enriched copolymer chains remain in water to form copolymer micelles and their aggregates in these media that solubilize and encapsulate the fullerene. The structure and properties of obtained polymer composites were studied by GPC with dual detection (RI and MALLS), FT-IR, WAXS and SAXS methods. It is shown that in a composite based on N-vinylpyrrolidone copolymer isolated from toluene the fullerene form larger particles, compare to that isolated from water. According to SAXS, the fullerene particles in a solid copolymer are organized in spherical objects with fine coil-like structure. The stability of the composites in water, ethanol, and chloroform was shown to depend on the original polymer matrix structure and on copolymer/fullerene ratio.
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