TY  - JOUR
A1  - Borova, Solomiia
A1  - Tokarev, Victor
A1  - Stahlhut, Philipp
A1  - Luxenhofer, Robert
T1  - Crosslinking of hydrophilic polymers using polyperoxides
JF  - Colloid and Polymer Science
N2  - Hydrogels that can mimic mechanical properties and functions of biological tissue have attracted great interest in tissue engineering and biofabrication. In these fields, new materials and approaches to prepare hydrogels without using toxic starting materials or materials that decompose into toxic compounds remain to be sought after. Here, we report the crosslinking of commercial, unfunctionalized hydrophilic poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) using peroxide copolymers in their melt. The influence of temperature, peroxide copolymer concentration, and duration of the crosslinking process has been investigated. The method allows to create hydrogels from unfunctionalized polymers in their melt and to control the mechanical properties of the resulting materials. The design of hydrogels with a suitable mechanical performance is of crucial importance in many existing and potential applications of soft materials, including medical applications.
KW  - hydrogels
KW  - radical crosslinking
KW  - poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)
KW  - thermal crosslinking
KW  - peroxide containing copolymers
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-238109
VL  - 298
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Borova, Solomiia
A1  - Schlutt, Christine
A1  - Nickel, Joachim
A1  - Luxenhofer, Robert
T1  - A Transient Initiator for Polypeptoids Postpolymerization α‐Functionalization via Activation of a Thioester Group
JF  - Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics
N2  - Here, a postpolymerization modification method for an α-terminal functionalized poly-(N-methyl-glycine), also known as polysarcosine, is introduced. 4-(Methylthio)phenyl piperidine-4-carboxylate as an initiator for the ring-opening polymerization of N-methyl-glycine-N-carboxyanhydride followed by oxidation of the thioester group to yield an α-terminal reactive 4-(methylsulfonyl)phenyl piperidine-4-carboxylate polymer is utilized. This represents an activated carboxylic acid terminus, allowing straightforward modification with nucleophiles under mild reaction conditions and provides the possibility to introduce a wide variety of nucleophiles as exemplified using small molecules, fluorescent dyes, and model proteins. The new initiator yielded polymers with well-defined molar mass, low dispersity, and high end-group fidelity, as observed by gel permeation chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. The introduced method can be of great interest for bioconjugation, but requires optimization, especially for protein conjugation.
KW  - ring-opening polymerization
KW  - bioconjugation
KW  - functional initiators
KW  - polypeptoids
KW  - postpolymerization modification
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-257587
VL  - 223
IS  - 3
ER  -