Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (7)
- Doctoral Thesis (7)
- Postprint (1)
- Review (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (16)
Keywords
- polymerization (16) (remove)
Institute
- Institut für Chemie (16)
- Extern (2)
Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Synthese und Charakterisierung von funktionalisierten Alkydharzen und die photoinduzierte Polymerisation dieser unter Einsatz einer Quecksilberdampflampe oder einer UV LED mit unterschiedlicher Lichtintensität. Der Fokus dieser Arbeit bestand in der gezielten Substitution der internalen Doppelbindungen der Fettsäureester durch reaktivere Gruppen, wie Acrylate oder Methacrylate, welche für Alkydharze in dieser Form so in der Literatur nicht beschrieben sind. Untersuchungen des Polymerisationsverhaltens dieser funktionalisierten Harze wurden mit der Photo DSC durchgeführt, wobei Bis – (4 – methoxybenzoyl) diethylgermanium als Photoinitiator diente. Die Ergebnisse haben gezeigt, dass die Harze radikalisch polymerisiert werden können und eine geringere Abhängigkeit von der Umgebungsatmosphäre (Luftsauerstoff bzw. Stickstoff) vorliegt. Dies ist so in der Literatur für funktionalisierte Alkydharze nicht bekannt. Abmischungen von unterschiedlichen Monomeren und funktionalisierten Harzen bewirkten eine Steigerung der Viskosität sowie eine Verringerung der Sauerstoffinhibierung im Zuge der photoinduzierten Polymerisation unter Luftsauerstoff für die Quecksilberdampflampe und der UV LED.
Zur Untersuchung der sauerstoffinhibierenden Wirkung der Harze sind Synthesen unterschiedlicher, funktionalisierter Ölsäuremethylester als Modellsubstanzen durchgeführt worden. Ein verbessertes Polymerisationsverhalten und eine geringe Abhängigkeit von der Umgebungsatmosphäre konnte für die Modelle nachgewiesen werden. Zur Aufklärung des verbesserten Polymerisationsverhaltens sind gezielt Substituenten (Imidazol, Brom, Alkohol, Acetat) in den funktionalisierten Ölsäuremethylester eingebaut worden, um den Einfluss dieser aufzuzeigen. Im Rahmen dieser Synthesen sind neuartige Strukturen synthetisiert worden, welche so in der Literatur nicht beschrieben sind. Die Gegenüberstellung der Polymerisationszeit, der Umsatz der (Meth-)Acrylatgruppen sowie die Zeit zum Erreichen der maximalen Polymerisationsgeschwindigkeit unter Verwendung von unterschiedlichen UV Lichtquellen hat einen Einfluss der Substituenten auf das Polymerisationsverhalten gezeigt.
Proteins are natural polypeptides produced by cells; they can be found in both animals and plants, and possess a variety of functions. One of these functions is to provide structural support to the surrounding cells and tissues. For example, collagen (which is found in skin, cartilage, tendons and bones) and keratin (which is found in hair and nails) are structural proteins. When a tissue is damaged, however, the supporting matrix formed by structural proteins cannot always spontaneously regenerate. Tailor-made synthetic polypeptides can be used to help heal and restore tissue formation.
Synthetic polypeptides are typically synthesized by the so-called ring opening polymerization (ROP) of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (NCA). Such synthetic polypeptides are generally non-sequence-controlled and thus less complex than proteins. As such, synthetic polypeptides are rarely as efficient as proteins in their ability to self-assemble and form hierarchical or structural supramolecular assemblies in water, and thus, often require rational designing. In this doctoral work, two types of amino acids, γ-benzyl-L/D-glutamate (BLG / BDG) and allylglycine (AG), were selected to synthesize a series of (co)polypeptides of different compositions and molar masses.
A new and versatile synthetic route to prepare polypeptides was developed, and its mechanism and kinetics were investigated. The polypeptide properties were thoroughly studied and new materials were developed from them. In particular, these polypeptides were able to aggregate (or self-assemble) in solution into microscopic fibres, very similar to those formed by collagen. By doing so, they formed robust physical networks and organogels which could be processed into high water-content, pH-responsive hydrogels. Particles with highly regular and chiral spiral morphologies were also obtained by emulsifying these polypeptides. Such polypeptides and the materials derived from them are, therefore, promising candidates for biomedical applications.
The combination of stimuli-responsive polymers and proteins that can transport drugs is a promising approach for drug delivery. The formation of ferritin-poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) conjugates by atom-transfer radical polymerization from the protein macroinitiator is described. PDMAEMA is a dual-stimuli-responsive polymer and the thermo- and pH-responsive properties of the resulting conjugates are studied in detail with dynamic light scattering (DLS). Additionally, it is demonstrated that the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the protein-polymer conjugates can be further adjusted by the ionic strength of the solution. The conjugates are also characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-ToF) mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy. The obtained MALDI-ToF mass spectra are exceptional for protein-polymer conjugates and have not been so often reported.
Novel nanocomposites of superparamagnetic cobalt nanoparticles (Co NPs) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) were fabricated through surface-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). We firstly synthesized a functional ATRP initiator, containing an amine (as anchoring group) and a 2-bromopropionate group (SI-ATRP initiator). Oleic acid- and trioctylphosphine oxide-coated Co NPs were then modified with the initiator via ligand exchange. The process is facile and rapid for efficient surface functionalization and afterwards the Co NPs can be dispersed into polar solvent DMF without aggregation. Transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering measurements confirmed the success of ligand exchange. The following polymerization of NIPAM was conducted on the surface of Co NPs. Temperature-dependent dynamic light scattering study showed the responsive behavior of PNIPAM-coated Co NPs. The combination of superparamagnetic and thermo-responsive properties in these hybrid nanoparticles is promising for future applications e.g. in biomedicine. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Vom Monomer zum Glykopolymer
(2019)
Glykopolymere sind synthetische und natürlich vorkommende Polymere, die eine Glykaneinheit in der Seitenkette des Polymers tragen. Glykane sind durch die Glykan-Protein-Wechselwirkung verantwortlich für viele biologische Prozesse. Die Beteiligung der Glykanen in diesen biologischen Prozessen ermöglicht das Imitieren und Analysieren der Wechselwirkungen durch geeignete Modellverbindungen, z.B. der Glykopolymere. Dieses System der Glykan-Protein-Wechselwirkung soll durch die Glykopolymere untersucht und studiert werden, um die spezifische und selektive Bindung der Proteine an die Glykopolymere nachzuweisen. Die Proteine, die in der Lage sind, Kohlenhydratstrukturen selektiv zu binden, werden Lektine genannt.
In dieser Dissertationsarbeit wurden verschiedene Glykopolymere synthetisiert. Dabei sollte auf einen effizienten und kostengünstigen Syntheseweg geachtet werden.
Verschiedene Glykopolymere wurden durch funktionalisierte Monomere mit verschiedenen Zuckern, wie z.B. Mannose, Laktose, Galaktose oder N-Acetyl-Glukosamin als funktionelle Gruppe, hergestellt. Aus diesen funktionalisierten Glykomonomeren wurden über ATRP und RAFT-Polymerisation Glykopolymere synthetisiert.
Die erhaltenen Glykopolymere wurden in Diblockcopolymeren als hydrophiler Block angewendet und die Selbstassemblierung in wässriger Lösung untersucht. Die Polymere formten in wässriger Lösung Mizellen, bei denen der Zuckerblock an der Oberfläche der Mizellen sitzt. Die Mizellen wurden mit einem hydrophoben Fluoreszenzfarbstoff beladen, wodurch die CMC der Mizellenbildung bestimmt werden konnte.
Außerdem wurden die Glykopolymere als Oberflächenbeschichtung über „Grafting from“ mit SI-ATRP oder über „Grafting to“ auf verschiedene Oberflächen gebunden. Durch die glykopolymerbschichteten Oberflächen konnte die Glykan Protein Wechselwirkung über spektroskopische Messmethoden, wie SPR- und Mikroring Resonatoren untersucht werden. Hierbei wurde die spezifische und selektive Bindung der Lektine an die Glykopolymere nachgewiesen und die Bindungsstärke untersucht.
Die synthetisierten Glykopolymere könnten durch Austausch der Glykaneinheit für andere Lektine adressierbar werden und damit ein weites Feld an anderen Proteinen erschließen. Die bioverträglichen Glykopolymere wären alternativen für den Einsatz in biologischen Prozessen als Transporter von Medikamenten oder Farbstoffe in den Körper. Außerdem könnten die funktionalisierten Oberflächen in der Diagnostik zum Erkennen von Lektinen eingesetzt werden. Die Glykane, die keine selektive und spezifische Bindung zu Proteinen eingehen, könnten als antiadsorptive Oberflächenbeschichtung z.B. in der Zellbiologie eingesetzt werden.
The high solids semicontinuous emulsion polymerization of polyvinyl acetate using poly (vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) as protective colloid is investigated by optical spectroscopy. The suitability of Photon Density Wave (PDW) spectroscopy as inline Process Analytical Technology (PAT) for emulsion polymerization processes at high solid contents (>40% (w/w)) is studied and evaluated. Inline data on absorption and scattering in the dispersion is obtained in real-time. The radical polymerization of vinyl acetate to polyvinyl acetate using ascorbic acid and sodium persulfate as redox initiator system and poly (vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) as protective colloid is investigated. Starved-feed radical emulsion polymerization yielded particle sizes in the nanometer size regime. PDW spectroscopy is used to monitor the progress of polymerization by studying the absorption and scattering properties during the synthesis of dispersions with increasing monomer amount and correspondingly decreasing feed rate of protective colloid. Results are compared to particle sizes determined with offline dynamic light scattering (DLS) and static light scattering (SLS) during the synthesis.
Combining the magnetic properties of a given material with the tremendous advantages of colloids can exponentially increase the advantages of both systems. This thesis deals with the field of magnetic nanotechnology. Thus, the design and characterization of new magnetic colloids with fascinating properties compared with the bulk materials is presented. Ferrofluids are referred to either as water or organic stable dispersions of superparamagnetic nanoparticles which respond to the application of an external magnetic field but lose their magnetization in the absence of a magnetic field. In the first part of this thesis, a three-step synthesis for the fabrication of a novel water-based ferrofluid is presented. The encapsulation of high amounts of magnetite into polystyrene particles can efficiently be achieved by a new process including two miniemulsion processes. The ferrofluids consist of novel magnetite polystyrene nanoparticles dispersed in water which are obtained by three-step process including coprecipitation of magnetite, its hydrophobization and further surfactant coating to enable the redispersion in water and the posterior encapsulation into polystyrene by miniemulsion polymerization. It is a desire to take advantage of a potential thermodynamic control for the design of nanoparticles, and the concept of "nanoreactors" where the essential ingredients for the formation of the nanoparticles are already in the beginning. The formulation and application of polymer particles and hybrid particles composed of polymeric and magnetic material is of high interest for biomedical applications. Ferrofluids can for instance be used in medicine for cancer therapy and magnetic resonance imaging. Superparamagnetic or paramagnetic colloids containing iron or gadolinium are also used as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent, for example as a important tool in the diagnosis of cancer, since they enhance the relaxation of the water of the neighbouring zones. New nanostructured composites by the thermal decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl in the monomer phase and thereafter the formation of paramagnetic nanocomposites by miniemulsion polymerization are discussed in the second part of this thesis. In order to obtain the confined paramagnetic nanocomposites a two-step process was used. In the first step, the thermal decomposition of the iron pentacarbonyl was obtained in the monomer phase using oleic acid as stabilizer. In the second step, this iron-containing monomer dispersion was used for making a miniemulsion polymerization thereof. The addition of lanthanide complexes to ester-containing monomers such as butyl acrylate and subsequent polymerization leading to the spontaneous formation of highly organized layered nanocomposites is presented in the final part of this thesis. By an one-step miniemulsion process, the formation of a lamellar structure within the polymer nanoparticles is achieved. The magnetization and the NMR relaxation measurements have shown these new layered nanocomposites to be very apt for application as contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging.
Epoxidized 1,4-polymyrcene
(2020)
1,4-Polymyrcene was synthesized by anionic polymerization and epoxidized using meta-chloroperbenzoic acid. Samples with different degrees of epoxidation (25%, 49%, 74%, and 98%) were prepared and examined according to their chemical and thermal properties. Epoxidation was found to increase the glass transition temperature (T-g = 14 degrees C for the 98% epoxidized 1,4-polymyrcene) as well as the shelf live (>10 months). The trisubstituted epoxide groups were remarkably stable against nucleophiles under basic conditions but cross-linked or hydrolyzed in the presence of an acid. Also, highly epoxidized 1,4-polymyrcene readily cross-linked upon annealing at 260 degrees C to produce an epoxy resin.
During the last decades, therapeutical proteins have risen to great significance in the pharmaceutical industry. As non-human proteins that are introduced into the human body cause a distinct immune system reaction that triggers their rapid clearance, most newly approved protein pharmaceuticals are shielded by modification with synthetic polymers to significantly improve their blood circulation time. All such clinically approved protein-polymer conjugates contain polyethylene glycol (PEG) and its conjugation is denoted as PEGylation. However, many patients develop anti-PEG antibodies which cause a rapid clearance of PEGylated molecules upon repeated administration. Therefore, the search for alternative polymers that can replace PEG in therapeutic applications has become important. In addition, although the blood circulation time is significantly prolonged, the therapeutic activity of some conjugates is decreased compared to the unmodified protein. The reason is that these conjugates are formed by the traditional conjugation method that addresses the protein's lysine side chains. As proteins have many solvent exposed lysines, this results in a somewhat uncontrolled attachment of polymer chains, leading to a mixture of regioisomers, with some of them eventually affecting the therapeutic performance.
This thesis investigates a novel method for ligating macromolecules in a site-specific manner, using enzymatic catalysis. Sortase A is used as the enzyme: It is a well-studied transpeptidase which is able to catalyze the intermolecular ligation of two peptides. This process is commonly referred to as sortase-mediated ligation (SML). SML constitutes an equilibrium reaction, which limits product yield. Two previously reported methods to overcome this major limitation were tested with polymers without using an excessive amount of one reactant.
Specific C- or N-terminal peptide sequences (recognition sequence and nucleophile) as part of the protein are required for SML. The complementary peptide was located at the polymer chain end. Grafting-to was used to avoid damaging the protein during polymerization. To be able to investigate all possible combinations (protein-recognition sequence and nucleophile-protein as well as polymer-recognition sequence and nucleophile-polymer) all necessary building blocks were synthesized. Polymerization via reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) was used to achieve a narrow molecular weight distribution of the polymers, which is required for therapeutic use.
The synthesis of the polymeric building blocks was started by synthesizing the peptide via automated solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) to avoid post-polymerization attachment and to enable easy adaptation of changes in the peptide sequence. To account for the different functionalities (free N- or C-terminus) required for SML, different linker molecules between resin and peptide were used.
To facilitate purification, the chain transfer agent (CTA) for reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization was coupled to the resin-immobilized recognition sequence peptide. The acrylamide and acrylate-based monomers used in this thesis were chosen for their potential to replace PEG.
Following that, surface-initiated (SI) ATRP and RAFT polymerization were attempted, but failed. As a result, the newly developed method of xanthate-supported photo-iniferter (XPI) RAFT polymerization in solution was used successfully to obtain a library of various peptide-polymer conjugates with different chain lengths and narrow molar mass distributions.
After peptide side chain deprotection, these constructs were used first to ligate two polymers via SML, which was successful but revealed a limit in polymer chain length (max. 100 repeat units). When utilizing equimolar amounts of reactants, the use of Ni2+ ions in combination with a histidine after the recognition sequence to remove the cleaved peptide from the equilibrium maximized product formation with conversions of up to 70 %.
Finally, a model protein and a nanobody with promising properties for therapeutical use were biotechnologically modified to contain the peptide sequences required for SML. Using the model protein for C- or N-terminal SML with various polymers did not result in protein-polymer conjugates. The reason is most likely the lack of accessibility of the protein termini to the enzyme. Using the nanobody for C-terminal SML, on the other hand, was successful. However, a similar polymer chain length limit was observed as in polymer-polymer SML. Furthermore, in case of the synthesis of protein-polymer conjugates, it was more effective to shift the SML equilibrium by using an excess of polymer than by employing the Ni2+ ion strategy.
Overall, the experimental data from this work provides a good foundation for future research in this promising field; however, more research is required to fully understand the potential and limitations of using SML for protein-polymer synthesis. In future, the method explored in this dissertation could prove to be a very versatile pathway to obtain therapeutic protein-polymer conjugates that exhibit high activities and long blood circulation times.
The structures and synthesis of polyzwitterions ("polybetaines") are reviewed, emphasizing the literature of the past decade. Particular attention is given to the general challenges faced, and to successful strategies to obtain polymers with a true balance of permanent cationic and anionic groups, thus resulting in an overall zero charge. Also, the progress due to applying new methodologies from general polymer synthesis, such as controlled polymerization methods or the use of "click" chemical reactions is presented. Furthermore, the emerging topic of responsive ("smart") polyzwitterions is addressed. The considerations and critical discussions are illustrated by typical examples.