Star polymers for biomedical application

Abstract

Nanomedicine is a promising field in which efficient drug delivery systems capable of releasing drugs in a controlled and specific fashion are developed on nanoscale. It is in this field that star polymers emerged as promising structural motifs to improve the efficiency of current existing therapies. Star polymers are structures composed of a central core from which multiple polymeric arms extend. In combination of their interesting properties such as the abundancy of functional groups and outstanding structural stability, growing interest in star polymer structures for the purpose of nanomedicine is still given. Within the current work, star-shaped polymers with 21 arms were synthesized on a core first approach by means of photo-induced copper mediated polymerization in batch and continuous flow set-ups. More complex star structures were also investigated by block copolymer synthesis. By incorporating a thermo-responsive block the passive star polymer can be transformed into an active smart material. This opens doors towards advanced biomedical applications such as the above mentioned drug delivery. Moreover, known end group modification strategies were also employed to convert the bromine end groups of the star polymer arms into other useful chemical entities allowing further functionalisation. The star polymer's drug delivery potential was also investigated yielding promising first results.