Design and Synthesis of Diblockcopolymers as Crosslinkable Surfactants for Biomedical Application (R-3175)

The goal of the research project is to design and synthesize well-defined blockcopolymers that consist of a hydrophilic part as well as a hydrophobic block whereby the hydrophobic block is functionalized with chemical moieties that allow for later crosslinking. Such macromolecules can be used to form particles via emulsion techniques. The particles themselves can then be used to encapsulate a range of functional loadings such as pharmaceutical drugs, bone mineral or cellmarkers. Chemical stabilization of the particles is reached via crosslinking of the hydrophobic blocks. At a later stage, the loading of the capsules can be released by either degrading the polymer backbone of the crosslinked part of via degradation of the crosslinked moieties, making these nanomaterials interesting for a broad range of biomedical applications. Synthesis of the polymer diblocks will be performed via controlled polymerization methodologies as well as by making use of click chemistry approaches. Particle formation will be carried out via mini- and microemulsion techniques.

Keywords:POLYMER NETWORKS

Disciplines:Process engineering, Polymeric materials