School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.
Daqing Chemical Engineering Research Center, Petrochemical Research Institute, Daqing 163714, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Mar 13;24(6):5495. doi: 10.3390/ijms24065495.
Polyethylene--polypeptide copolymers are biologically interesting, but studies of their synthesis and properties are very few. This paper reports synthesis and characterization of well-defined amphiphilic polyethylene--poly(L-lysine) (PE--PLL) block copolymers by combining nickel-catalyzed living ethylene polymerization with controlled ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine--carboxyanhydride (Z-Lys-NCA) and sequential post-functionalization. Amphiphilic PE--PLL block copolymers self-assembled into spherical micelles with a hydrophobic PE core in aqueous solution. The pH and ionic responsivities of PE--PLL polymeric micelles were investigated by means of fluorescence spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, UV-circular dichroism, and transmission electron microscopy. The variation of pH values led to the conformational alteration of PLL from α-helix to coil, thereby changing the micelle dimensions.
聚乙烯-多肽共聚物具有生物学意义，但对其合成和性质的研究却很少。本文通过结合镍催化的活性乙烯聚合与ε-苄氧羰基-L-赖氨酸-羧酸酐（Z-Lys-NCA）的可控开环聚合（ROP）以及顺序后功能化，合成并表征了具有两亲性的聚乙烯-聚（L-赖氨酸）（PE-PLL）嵌段共聚物。两亲性的 PE-PLL 嵌段共聚物在水溶液中自组装成具有疏水性 PE 核的球形胶束。通过荧光光谱、动态光散射、UV-圆二色性和透射电子显微镜研究了 PE-PLL 聚合物胶束的 pH 值和离子响应性。pH 值的变化导致 PLL 从α-螺旋到无规卷曲的构象改变，从而改变了胶束的尺寸。
