Polymer Chemistry Blog

In this paper, Harth and co-workers reported on the synthesis of biodegradable nanoparticles capable of paclitaxel entrapment and demonstrated the ability to control release of paclitaxel by adjusting the single parameter of the particles’ crosslinking density. Additionally, particles with different densities can be mixed to yield various rates of release that can be fast or slow depending on the specific application. The ability of these particles to withstand simulated gastric fluid allows for the possibility of an oral drug delivery route.

An assessment of nanosponges for intravenous and oral drug delivery of BCS class IV drugs: Drug delivery kinetics and solubilization by David M. Stevens, Kelly A. Gilmore and Eva Harth Polym. Chem. 2014, 5, 3551-3554.

Julien Nicolas is a web-writer and advisory board member for Polymer Chemistry. He currently works at Univ. Paris-Sud (FR) as a CNRS researcher.

Driven by the interest in developing new efficient methodologies to prepare well-defined grafted poly(1,4-butadiene)s, Fontaine and co-workers used in the present work a consecutive organocatalyzed ring-opening polymerization (ROP)/ROMP route to prepare poly(1,4-butadiene)-g-polyesters from cyclobutenyl macromonomers bearing one or two polyester segment(s) derived from L-lactide (LA) or ε-caprolactone (CL). The products resulting from this strategy represent the first examples of poly(1,4-butadiene)-g-polyesters through the macromonomer route. These results pave the way for more complicated macromolecular architectures, e.g., by modification of the side-chain termini. Moreover, the hydrolytic (bio)degradation potential of the side chains (that can be used as sacrificial domains) of those bottlebrush copolymers makes them attractive candidates to be used for the preparation of complex hollowed nanostructures.

Synthesis and polymerization of cyclobutenyl-functionalized polylactide and polycaprolactone: a consecutive ROP/ROMP route towards poly(1,4-butadiene)-g-polyesters by Flavien Leroux, Véronique Montembault, Sagrario Pascual, William Guerin, Sophie M. Guillaume and Laurent Fontaine Polym. Chem.2014, 5, 3476-3486.

Julien Nicolas is a web-writer and advisory board member for Polymer Chemistry. He currently works at Univ. Paris-Sud (FR) as a CNRS researcher.