Controlled synthesis of diverse single-chain polymeric nanoparticles using polymers bearing furan-protected maleimide moieties

Abstract

The facile fabrication of well-defined single-chain polymeric nanoparticles (SCNPs) with variable sizes was realized using polymers with furan-protected maleimide (FMI) moieties as a synthetic platform. Well-defined linear polymer chains bearing FMI moieties were prepared by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. These linear polymer chains were then collapsed into individual particles with diameters of 10–20 nm via three chemical routes: intramolecular RAFT polymerization, intramolecular ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), and bimolecular thiol–maleimide coupling. Size exclusion chromatography, proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and dynamic light scattering analyses confirmed the formation of the SCNPs. Through tuning the parameters of each chemical reaction, i.e., ROMP, RAFT and thiol-Michael, SCNPs with variable sizes can be fabricated. Cell culture experiments revealed that cell proliferation was promoted for these surface-bound SCNPs compared with those bound with a linear precursor. This work enables the production of SCNPs with more variabilities on particle sizes and functionalities, and offers an instructive pathway for the potential use of SCNPs as functional polymeric materials.