Synthesis and Properties of Amphiphilic and Biodegradable Poly(ε-caprolactone-co-glycidol) Copolymers

We have synthesized poly(epsilon-caprolactone-co-tert-butyl glycidyl ether) (CL-co-BGE) statistical copolymers using 1-tert-butyl-4,4,4-tris(dimethylamino)-2,2-bis [tris(dimethylamino)phophoranylidenamino]-25,45-catenadi(phosphazene) (t-BuP4) as the catalyst. The hydrolysis of the resulting polymers yields amphiphilic poly(epsilon-caprolactone-co-glycidol) (CL-co-GD) copolymers. By use of the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D), we have investigated the enzymatic degradation of the copolymers. It is shown that the degradation rate increases with the content of hydrophilic (GD) units. (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) (MTT) assay experiments demonstrate that the CL-co-GD copolymers have low cytotoxicity. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 846-853