Organocatalytic ring-opening polymerization towards polyphosphoesters

Hydrolytically degradable and biocompatible aliphatic polyesters are widely applied for biomedical applications as implants, scaffolds for tissue engineering and, finally, as nanocarriers for drug delivery. Aliphatic phophoesters, known since the pioneering work of S. Penczek in the 70’s, exhibit the same properties of hydrolytic degradability and biocompatibility and are thus more and more studied for biomedical applications as well. In the field of materials, anti-fire properties opens up new perspectives. The difference between polyesters and polyphosphoesters in terms of synthesis and properties will be highlighted.

Polyphosphosphoesters are synthesized by step-growth and chain growth polymerization. When these polyphosphoesters are synthesized by ring-opening polymerization of cyclic phosphoesters, organocatalysts turned out to be very efficient compared to coodination processes.

The last part of the talk will deal with te implementation of ROP of cyclic phosphates towards a series of amphiphilic PEO-block-polyphosphate copolymers of tailored hydrophobicity depending on the length of the lateral alkyl group. These polymers are able to self assemble into nanoparticles by direct dissolution in water, thus in the absernce of any organic solvent. The so-obtained micelles were studied by a set of techniques (Pyrene Fluorescence, Dynamic Light Scattering, Tensiometry). Finally, the influence of the hydrophobicity of the polyphosphate block of the micelle on the encapsulation and the release of a model drug was investigated.