Issue 16, 2011

Triphilic block copolymers with perfluorocarbon moieties in aqueous systems and their biochemical perspectives

Abstract

Synthetic polymers incorporating fluorine segments or blocks are highly interesting for biomedical and pharmaceutical research due to the singular biological activity imparted by the fluorinated moieties. However, rather demanding traditional living polymerization techniques required to obtain well-defined block copolymers had typically been a major hurdle for a faster development of the field. Recently, block copolymers and telechelic polymers comprising segments with different chemical affinities, therefore termed as “polyphilic”, have become easily accessible, thanks to alternative controlled radical polymerization techniques. They can be applied alone or in conjunction with novel quantitative post-polymerization reactions which allow to “click” additional segments via functional groups. Triphilic polymers exhibit a rich variety of morphologies in solvents selective for one of the blocks including multicompartment micelles, which forecasts innovative pharmaceutical applications as for example vehicles of nanometre size for the simultaneous delivery of incompatible drug components to cells. In this highlight we focus on our recent contributions, current trends and perspectives regarding triphilic block copolymers and telechelic polymers formed exclusively from hydrophilic, lipophilic and fluorophilic building blocks.

Graphical abstract: Triphilic block copolymers with perfluorocarbon moieties in aqueous systems and their biochemical perspectives

Article information

Article type
Highlight
Submitted
24 Feb 2011
Accepted
26 Apr 2011
First published
25 May 2011

Soft Matter, 2011,7, 7144-7149

Triphilic block copolymers with perfluorocarbon moieties in aqueous systems and their biochemical perspectives

E. Amado and J. Kressler, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 7144 DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05339F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements