Zahra Sekhavat Pour , Pravin S. Shinde , Jun Wang , Cameron Woods , Seth Taylor , Sourav Chatterjee , Jason E. Bara
{"title":"1,3-Diether-2-methacrylates with glycerol skeletons: tunable resins for stereolithography 3D printing†","authors":"Zahra Sekhavat Pour , Pravin S. Shinde , Jun Wang , Cameron Woods , Seth Taylor , Sourav Chatterjee , Jason E. Bara","doi":"10.1039/d5py00198f","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d5py00198f","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The abundance of glycerol associated with biofuel production makes it an interesting substrate for a variety of new molecules. Our prior works have demonstrated the controlled and scalable synthesis of symmetric and asymmetric 1,3-diether-2-propanol compounds with a glycerol skeleton, which serve as versatile intermediates for further chemical modifications. Now we demonstrate that 1,3-diether-2-propanol compounds are useful building blocks to synthesize corresponding methacrylate monomers <em>via</em> Steglich esterification with methacrylic anhydride under mild catalytic conditions. The resulting methacrylate monomers were then successfully 3D printed as neat resins using a consumer-level printer. The thermal and mechanical properties of the printed materials were thoroughly investigated. The 3D-printed samples of 1,3-diethoxypropan-2-yl methacrylate (MAA-DEP) possessed good combinations of mechanical and thermal properties, with a tensile strength of 1.61 MPa, elongation at break of 143%, and a glass transition temperature (<em>T</em><sub>g</sub>) near 0 °C. A notable feature of the MAA-DEP monomer is its ability to dissolve polystyrene (PS). Thus, glycerol-based (meth)acrylate monomers present not only new molecules for 3D printing resins with tunable properties but also offer advancements in additive manufacturing by demonstrating how glycerol-derived acrylates also have solvating power to incorporate (waste) thermoplastics into SLA-printable formulations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":"16 24","pages":"Pages 2840-2850"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143862442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thirusangumurugan Senthamarai, Enrico Lanaro, Jack Tinker, Antoine Buchard and Arjan W. Kleij
{"title":"Synthesis and depolymerization studies of biohybrid polycarbonates derived from terpenes†","authors":"Thirusangumurugan Senthamarai, Enrico Lanaro, Jack Tinker, Antoine Buchard and Arjan W. Kleij","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00285K","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00285K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >We here report the catalytic ring-opening copolymerization of 2-menthene oxide (<strong>MO</strong>), a terpene-based monomer derived from <small>L</small>-menthol, and CO<small><sub>2</sub></small> to provide poly(menthene carbonate), <strong>PMC</strong>, with a maximum molecular weight (<em>M</em><small><sub>n</sub></small>) of 10.2 kg mol<small><sup>−1</sup></small>. The terpene monomer <strong>MO</strong> can also be combined with both limonene oxide (<strong>LO</strong>) and CO<small><sub>2</sub></small> in a formal terpolymerization process providing, depending on the monomer feed ratio, different types of biohybrid polycarbonates (<strong>PLMC</strong>) with different degrees of functionality. These terpolymerizations could be extended to the use of an acyclic terpene oxide and either <strong>MO</strong>/CO<small><sub>2</sub></small> or <strong>LO</strong>/CO<small><sub>2</sub></small>, and a previously reported xylose-derived bicyclic oxetane. A selection of <strong>MO</strong>/<strong>LO</strong> based biohybrid <strong>PLMCs</strong> were conveniently depolymerized under TBD catalysis to regenerate the original mixture (>95%) of terpene oxides thereby providing a suitable starting point for the circular use of these biohybrid macromolecules.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 23","pages":" 2784-2790"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/py/d5py00285k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144122718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yu Cheng, Zihe Zhao, Xiaowei Xu, Chunxiao Ren, Xiaohui Wei, Yanxiang Yang, Jin Li, Daqiang Jiang, Kunyu Zhang, Bin Wang and Yi Luo
{"title":"Efficient synthesis of polylactide and copolymers under industrial conditions by multinuclear β-ketoimide zinc complexes†","authors":"Yu Cheng, Zihe Zhao, Xiaowei Xu, Chunxiao Ren, Xiaohui Wei, Yanxiang Yang, Jin Li, Daqiang Jiang, Kunyu Zhang, Bin Wang and Yi Luo","doi":"10.1039/D4PY01486C","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4PY01486C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Polylactic acid (PLA), a representative degradable aliphatic polyester, has the advantages of biodegradability, biocompatibility, and good thermal and mechanical properties. The industrial production of high-molecular-weight PLA is achieved <em>via</em> the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of <small>L</small>-lactide (<small>L</small>-LA) catalyzed by Sn(<small>II</small>)-2-ethyl-hexanoate (Sn(Oct)<small><sub>2</sub></small>) under melt and bulk conditions. Although huge efforts have been made to develop organometallics with low toxicity, and many catalysts that are highly active under mild laboratory conditions have been found, very few candidates can compete with Sn(Oct)<small><sub>2</sub></small> under industrially relevant conditions. Here, we report novel multinuclear β-ketoiminate zinc complexes as efficient catalysts for <small>L</small>-LA polymerization under industrially relevant conditions, with a turnover frequency as high as 5880 h<small><sup>−1</sup></small>. The catalysts exhibited good stability and activity and compete well with Sn(Oct)<small><sub>2</sub></small> under industrial conditions, affording colorless PLLA with high crystallinity. Preliminary copolymerization experiments suggested that the zinc catalyst can also catalyze the random copolymerization of <small>L</small>-LA with ε-caprolactone and dioxanone under melt and bulk conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 26","pages":" 3030-3040"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144097067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xianqiang Zeng, Chen Liu, Xue Wang, Yan Cao, Zheng Zheng, Peng He, Huiquan Li and Liguo Wang
{"title":"Commercial organic Lewis-pair catalysts for efficient ring-opening polymerization of 1,2-butylene oxide†","authors":"Xianqiang Zeng, Chen Liu, Xue Wang, Yan Cao, Zheng Zheng, Peng He, Huiquan Li and Liguo Wang","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00238A","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00238A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Poly(1,2-butylene oxide) (PBO) with ethyl side chains exhibits enhanced hydrophobicity, lower glass transition temperatures, and more nonpolar characteristics compared to poly(propylene oxide) (PPO). However, the presence of large steric hindrance from side groups of 1,2-butylene oxide (BO) makes its ring-opening polymerization (ROP) inefficient. We report a metal-free Lewis pair catalytic system comprising triethylborane (Et<small><sub>3</sub></small>B) and tetrabutylphosphonium bromide (TBPBr) that overcomes these limitations. This catalyst enables quantitative BO conversion under mild conditions (−20 °C), delivering high molecular weight PBO with a narrow polydispersity index (<em>M</em><small><sub>n</sub></small> = 37.2 kg mol<small><sup>−1</sup></small>, <em>Đ</em> = 1.07) through controlled chain propagation. Notably, the exceptional active hydrogen tolerance of the system allows precise synthesis of low molecular weight PBO polyols (<em>M</em><small><sub>n</sub></small> = 1.4–3.5 kg mol<small><sup>−1</sup></small>, <em>Đ</em> ≤ 1.05) using diols as initiators, with MALDI-TOF analysis confirming hydroxyl end-group fidelity. Furthermore, PBO polyols can be used directly in the synthesis of polyurethanes without the need for refining. We examined the influence of interactions between Lewis acids and Lewis bases on polymerization, and the results indicate that moderate interaction is critical for achieving optimal polymerization activity. This research demonstrates that a rational combination of a two-component Lewis pair catalyst offers a straightforward and practical approach for synthesizing polyethers with long side chains.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 23","pages":" 2742-2750"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144097061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wenhui Dai, Yueming Wu, Kang Chen, Xinyi Xie, Luhang Chen, Minzhang Chen, Jiangzhou Wang, Dan Wang and Runhui Liu
{"title":"RGD peptide-mimicking random copolymers synthesized via rapid and controllable NCA polymerization to promote cell adhesion†","authors":"Wenhui Dai, Yueming Wu, Kang Chen, Xinyi Xie, Luhang Chen, Minzhang Chen, Jiangzhou Wang, Dan Wang and Runhui Liu","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00389J","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00389J","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Cell adhesion is essential for achieving tissue regeneration and repair. Although cell adhesion proteins and peptides, such as RGD peptides, have been widely used to promote cell adhesion, their application is often hindered by challenges related to large-scale preparation and high costs. To overcome these challenges, we designed and synthesized RGD-mimicking random copolymers that can be synthesized from rapid and controllable NCA polymerization on a large scale. The optimal random copolymer promotes cellular behaviors such as cell adhesion, proliferation and migration, as well as the performance of RGD in a variety of cell types. Mechanistic studies revealed that the RGD-mimicking polymer showed strong binding affinity to αvβ3 integrin, in a manner analogous to RGD peptides. Our study suggests that ternary random copolymers can be potent candidates to mimic the RGD peptides and promote cell adhesion, providing a promising strategy to promote cell adhesion and tissue regeneration.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 23","pages":" 2732-2741"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144097013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Synthesis of electron-deficient polymers based on sulfur-bridged dithienylboranes as a building block†","authors":"Yohei Adachi, Ryuji Matsuura, Mitsuru Sakabe, Hiroki Tobita, Hideki Murakami and Joji Ohshita","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00203F","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00203F","url":null,"abstract":"<p >π-Conjugated materials incorporating tricoordinate boron are known to possess relatively deep LUMO energy levels owing to the interaction between the empty p orbital of boron and the π* orbital. However, polymers with simple triarylborane structures do not have deep LUMO energy levels for applications in electron-accepting optoelectronic materials, such as n-type semiconductors. In this study, we synthesized new p–π* conjugated polymers by copolymerizing thiaborin units containing boron and sulfur atoms and diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP), a well-known acceptor unit. The resulting polymers exhibited extended conjugation through the boron p orbital and strong absorption in the visible to near-infrared region. Although these polymers did not show n-type semiconductor behavior, they possessed deep LUMO energy levels lower than −3.6 eV. Furthermore, titration experiments using an amine base revealed that the polymer containing a sulfone unit has strong Lewis acidity, as evidenced by changes in the UV-vis absorption spectrum upon coordination of the base.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 23","pages":" 2751-2756"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/py/d5py00203f?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Panfeng Gao, Han Shen, Xiaoman Gui, Jianling Ni, Shisong Sun, Meixiu Wan and Lijun Huo
{"title":"Efficient thick film all-polymer solar cells enabled by incorporating an ester-substituted non-fullerene-based polymer acceptor†","authors":"Panfeng Gao, Han Shen, Xiaoman Gui, Jianling Ni, Shisong Sun, Meixiu Wan and Lijun Huo","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00302D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00302D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The low tolerance of thickness variations in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) is currently becoming a new challenge to achieving efficient power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and large-scale production. Compared with small molecular acceptors (SMA) systems, polymer acceptors in all-PSCs usually possess lower crystalline properties and imbalanced charge transportation characteristics, which limit their active layer thicknesses and PCEs. In this work, ester-substituted side chains were incorporated onto a thiophene–vinylene–thiophene (TVT) backbone to construct a non-fullerene Y-series polymer acceptor. It exhibited strengthened π–π stacking and higher charge mobility than its alkyl-substituted counterpart. When the ester-substituted polymer acceptor was blended with the donor PM6, it delivered a champion PCE of 16.48% with a high <em>V</em><small><sub>oc</sub></small> and FF. Impressively, the device efficiencies are insensitive to variation in the photoactive layer thickness and can maintain over 80% of the optimized efficiency as the film thickness increases to 400 nm, which is the best result for an all-PSC so far. This work not only achieved synergism between high efficiency and thickness-insensitivity in an all-PSC device, but also demonstrated that the TVT-containing backbone can be further optimized by incorporating reasonable functional groups to construct highly crystalline Y series polymer acceptors.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 22","pages":" 2670-2679"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ghislaine Barouti, Cédric Gaillard, Sophie M. Guillaume and Christophe Chassenieux
{"title":"Stable self-assemblies of polyhydroxybutyrate-based diblock and triblock copolymers nanoprecipitated in water: influence of their hydrophilic weight fraction†","authors":"Ghislaine Barouti, Cédric Gaillard, Sophie M. Guillaume and Christophe Chassenieux","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00378D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00378D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Polyester-based amphiphilic block copolymers are the most widely investigated ones for biomedical applications, and in particular as drug delivery systems. Self-assemblies derived from such biocompatible and biodegradable copolymers are most often centered on poly(lactic acid), poly(glycolic acid), poly(lactic acid-<em>co</em>-glycolic acid), or poly(ε-caprolactone), and commonly involve the use of a surfactant during their elaboration. Herein, we report the use of nanoprecipitation rather than surfactant-assisted self-assembling based on biocompatible and biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), namely poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) − the ubiquitous PHA, and poly(β-malic acid) (PMLA). Analogous diblock PMLA-<em>b</em>-PHB and triblock PMLA-<em>b</em>-PHB-<em>b</em>-PMLA copolymers were comparatively explored. Tuning both the hydrophilic weight fraction <em>f</em> (<em>i.e.</em>, the PMLA content) and the polymer topology enabled to design a range of PHA-type nano-objects, as investigated and rationalized through light scattering measurements. While large aggregates (<em>R</em><small><sub>h</sub></small><em>ca.</em> 300 nm) were obtained in aqueous solutions from PMLA-<em>b</em>-PHB copolymers exhibiting a low hydrophilic weight fraction (<em>f ca.</em> 10%), well-defined spherically shaped core–shell micelles (<em>R</em><small><sub>h</sub></small><em>ca.</em> 10–30 nm) were prepared from diblock copolymers with higher <em>f</em> values (<em>ca.</em> 50–76%). Triblock copolymers within such a similar <em>f</em> range (<em>ca.</em> 15–82%) formed smaller aggregates (<em>R</em><small><sub>h</sub></small><em>ca.</em> 20 to 26 nm) distinct from the better-defined core–shell micelles recovered from the diblock copolymers. Furthermore, blending two <em>f</em>-distinct diblock copolymers resulted in self-assembled systems displaying characteristics (<em>R</em><small><sub>h</sub></small><em>ca.</em> 53 to 67 nm) intermediate to those of the pristine copolymers, thus supporting the co-assembly of the two diblock copolymers within the same particles. Finally, the structure of the copolymers is shown to enable tailoring the stability and resilience of their self-assemblies upon ageing in physiological-like conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 27","pages":" 3146-3155"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anisha Patel, Georgia L. Maitland, Evelina Liarou, Paul D. Topham and Matthew J. Derry
{"title":"Transparent diblock copolymer nanoparticle dispersions via efficient RAFT emulsion polymerisation in ionic liquid†","authors":"Anisha Patel, Georgia L. Maitland, Evelina Liarou, Paul D. Topham and Matthew J. Derry","doi":"10.1039/D5PY00076A","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D5PY00076A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >We report the first reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerisation-induced self-assembly (RAFT-PISA) in ionic liquid (IL) that proceeds under emulsion conditions. Moreover, this formulation exploits refractive index contrast matching to generate highly transparent nanoparticle dispersions. Specifically, 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium ethylsulfate, [EMIM][EtOSO<small><sub>3</sub></small>], was used as the solvent for the chain extension of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) macromolecular chain transfer agents (macro-CTAs) using <em>n</em>-butyl methacrylate (BuMA) <em>via</em> RAFT emulsion polymerisation. Two series of PHEMA<small><sub>x</sub></small>-<em>b</em>-PBuMA<small><sub>y</sub></small> diblock copolymers with target PBuMA degrees of polymerisation (DPs) varying from 50 to 1000 were synthesised using either a PHEMA<small><sub>21</sub></small> or PHEMA<small><sub>77</sub></small> macro-CTA. All resulting nanoparticle dispersions yielded highly transparent dispersions, even when nanoparticle diameters exceeded 100 nm, due to the closely matched refractive index values of the [EMIM][EtOSO<small><sub>3</sub></small>] solvent and PBuMA nanoparticle core. Detailed analysis using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the presence of spherical nanoparticles. Furthermore, the synthesis of PHEMA-<em>b</em>-PBuMA <em>via</em> this new PISA formulation was directly compared to equivalent block copolymer syntheses conducted in <em>N</em>,<em>N</em>-dimethylformamide (DMF) or ethanol/water mixtures. It was found that syntheses conducted in [EMIM][EtOSO<small><sub>3</sub></small>] resulted in the highest monomer conversions (up to >99%) and lowest dispersity (<em>Đ</em><small><sub>M</sub></small>) values (as low as 1.16) in the shortest reaction times (2 hours) compared to the other solvent systems. This work demonstrates the use of ILs as a more sustainable and effective solvent for RAFT–PISA <em>via</em> the development of the first emulsion PISA formulation in IL.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 23","pages":" 2767-2777"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/py/d5py00076a?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Krishna Vippala, Nicole Edelstein-Pardo, Shahar Tevet, Parul Rathee, Gil Koren, Roy Beck and Roey J. Amir
{"title":"Programming cascade mesophase transitions of enzyme-responsive formulations via molecular engineering of dendritic amphiphiles†","authors":"Krishna Vippala, Nicole Edelstein-Pardo, Shahar Tevet, Parul Rathee, Gil Koren, Roy Beck and Roey J. Amir","doi":"10.1039/D4PY01378F","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4PY01378F","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The ability to program cascades of enzymatically induced transitions of polymeric assemblies across various mesophases holds promise for developing new dynamic materials with complex response mechanisms, mimicking the intricate behavior of proteins and other biological systems. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of controlling the rates of such sequential transitions by molecular engineering of the polymeric building blocks. To this end, we utilized a hydrogel forming PEG-based tri-block amphiphile (TBA) and micelles forming di-block amphiphiles (DBAs), composed of dendrons with enzymatically cleavable ester end-groups as their hydrophobic blocks, to create co-assembled nano-micellar formulations. We investigated their multi-step mesophase transitions, first from micelles into macroscopic hydrogels and subsequently into water-soluble polymers, in the presence of the activating enzyme porcine liver esterase (PLE). To demonstrate the ability to control the time frame of the micelle-to-hydrogel mesophase transition, we designed and synthesized three DBAs with varying dendritic architectures and degrees of hydrophobicity. These DBAs are composed of hydrophobic dendrons with two, three, and four lipophilic end-groups, designated as DBA-C6×2, DBA-C6×3, and DBA-C6×4, respectively. Our results indicated that the co-assembled micelles containing the least hydrophobic DBA-C6×2 rapidly transformed into a hydrogel within less than two hours upon exposure to PLE. In contrast, the micellar formulation with the most hydrophobic DBA-C6×4 took over two days to transition into the hydrogel mesophase. These findings underscore the potential of using molecular engineering to tailor the behavior of programable polymeric assemblies.</p>","PeriodicalId":100,"journal":{"name":"Polymer Chemistry","volume":" 23","pages":" 2757-2766"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/py/d4py01378f?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}