Adams, Dave J. and Atkins, Derek and Cooper, Andrew I. and Furzeland, Steve and Trewin, Abbie and Young, Iain (2008) Vesicles from peptidic side-chain polymers synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. Biomacromolecules, 9 (11). pp. 2997-3003. ISSN 1525-7797
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Block copolymers can adopt a wide range of morphologies in dilute aqueous solution. There is a significant amount of interest in the use of block copolymer vesicles for a number of applications. We show that a series of oligo(valine) and oligo(phenylalanine) peptides coupled to a methacrylic group can be prepared by conventional peptide coupling techniques. These can be successfully polymerized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATPP) in hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) giving access to poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(side-chain peptides). Many of these polymers self-assemble to form vesicles using an organic to aqueous solvent exchange. One example with a divaline hydrophobic block gives a mixture of toroids and vesicles. Circular dichroism demonstrates that secondary structuring is observed in the hydrophobic region of the vesicle walls for the valine side-chain containing polymers.