Thermal responsiveness and binding affinity of cucurbit[7]uril terminal poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)

Abstract

We synthesized cucurbit[7]uril terminal poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (CB[7]-PNIPAM) via a click reaction of monopropargylated CB[7] and azido terminal PNIPAM. We found that the introduction of CB[7] and charged guest molecules raised the lower critical solution temperature of PNIPAM significantly and CB[7]-PNIPAM maintained high binding affinity of CB[7].