Synthesis of precursors of poly(acryl amides) by copper mediated living radical polymerization in DMSO

The paper describes the optimization of copper(I) mediated living radical polymerization of N-hydroxysuccinimide methacrylate to achieve AB block copoly(acryl amides) offering a route to polymers with potential biomedical applications. Polymerization of N-hydroxysuccinimide methacrylate was carried out using copper(I) bromide/N-(n-propyl)-2-pyridylmethanimine catalyst with ethyl-2-bromoisobutyrate as the initiator at three different temperatures (70, 50 and 30 °C). Polymerizations at both 70 and 50 °C gave relatively high conversion, 72% and 62% respectively after 4 h. Polymerization at 30 °C the best linear first-order kinetic plot. The polydispersity remained narrow (1.15) and there was a good agreement between experimental, determined by 1H NMR, and theoretical Mn. Polymerization of N-hydroxysuccinimide methacrylate was investigated in more detail by following reactions in situ by 1H NMR. The experimental values of Mn (NMR) were quite close to the theoretical values and the polydispersities were relatively narrow (1.10–1.19). Isolated poly(N-hydroxysuccinimide methacrylate) was used as a macroinitiator for the polymerization of MMA catalyzed by Cu(I)Br in conjunction with N-(n-propyl)-2-pyridylmethanamine ligand leading to block copolymers. A poly(methyl acryl amide) is synthesized indirectly from the reaction of benzyl amine with poly(N-hydroxysuccinimide methacrylate) for 5 h with in DMSO at 50 °C under nitrogen.