Abstract

New fluoroalkyl end-capped 2-aminoethyl methacrylate hydrochloride (AEM) co-oligomers containing triol or tetraol segments were prepared by reaction of fluoroalkanoyl peroxides with AEM and the corresponding triol or tetraol monomer under very mild conditions. Fluoroalkyl end-capped AEM co-oligomers thus obtained had no solubility in water and DMSO. However, these co-oligomers could cause gelation in these solvents under non-crosslinked conditions, although the corresponding AEM homo-oligomers had good solubility in these solvents, and were able to reduce the surface tension of water quite effectively. Interestingly, fluoroalkyl end-capped AEM co-oligomers exhibited as extremely high antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as the corresponding fluorinated AEM homo-oligomers. In addition, fluoroalkyl end-capped AEM co-oligomer gels are applicable to new fluorinated gelling polymer electrolytes, and these cationic gels containing lithium ions exhibited a considerably high ionic conductivity of the level of 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ at room temperature.