Anthracene functionalized thermosensitive and UV-crosslinkable polymeric micelles

Abstract

An anthracene-functionalized thermosensitive block copolymer was synthesized, which formed micelles by heating its aqueous solution above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). The micelles were subsequently crosslinked by UV illumination at 365 nm with a normal handheld UV lamp. The micelles showed a small size (30 nm) and high loading capacity (16.0 ± 0.1%) for paclitaxel and released paclitaxel for more than ten days.