Aqueous Ring-Opening Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly of N-carboxyanhydrides – ROPISA

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is a facile approach for accessing amphiphilic polymers with the benefit of obtaining at the same time polymeric nanoparticles at high concentration and in a scalable fashion. This project proposes the aqueous ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of hydrophobic N-carboxyanhydrides (NCA) via their unprecedented reactivity in water using hydrophilic macroinitiator and via monomer protection from hydrolysis through spontaneous in situ self-assembly (ISA). This ROPISA process will afford well-defined amphiphilic diblock copolymers that simultaneously form nano-object having morphologies influenced by the secondary structure of the polypeptides, a unique feature of this PISA process. As a proof of concept, the project ROPISA aims at preparing drug delivery systems whose encapsulation efficiency will be studied.