Amphiphilic sun-shaped polymers by grafting macrocyclic copolyesters with PEO

An amphiphilic sun-shaped copolymer was successfully prepared by esterification of carboxylic acid terminated PEO with the pendent hydroxyl groups of high molecular weight (M-n = 28 000) cyclic PCL. The cyclic structure of the copolyester originally resulted from the polymerization initiation by a cyclic tin dialkoxide and was ultimately stabilized by the intramolecular cross-linking of a few unsaturated groups.