Facile Syntheses of Cucurbit[6]uril-Anchored Polymers and Their Noncovalent Modification

Abstract

The general strategy for facile synthesis of Cucurbit[6]uril- (CB[6]-) anchored polymers without the functionalization of CB[6] was presented. The acrylamide as a typical monomer was used to synthesize a series of CB[6]-anchored polyacrylamides (CB[6]-PAM) using potassium persulfateas as initiator and oxidant. The CB[6]-PAM samples were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HMQC, FTIR, and TGA. It was found that the composition and chain microstructure of CB[6]-PAM polymers could be tunable by changing the content of potassium persulfate, CB[6] and acrylamide. In addition, CB[6]-PAM could be assembled into nanosized vesicles, which were confirmed by TEM, AFM, and SEM measurements. By taking advantage of the exceptional binding affinity of the CB[6], the CB[6]-PAM could be modified with butyl amine hydrochloride. The result makes the CB[6]-anchored polymer potentially useful in many applications. Furthermore, this synthetic approach could be extend to CB[6]-anchored polymers with two different chains. As a typical example, CB[6]-anchored poly(4-vinylbenzylamine hydrochloride salt) and polyacrylamide was synthesized successfully.