Abstract

Nanoparticles assembled from poly(d,l-lactic acid)−poly(ethylene glycol) (PLA−PEG) block copolymers may have a therapeutic application in site-specific drug delivery. A series of AB block copolymers based on a fixed PEG block (5 kDa) and a varying PLA segment (2−110 kDa) have been synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization of d,l-lactide using stannous octoate as a catalyst. These copolymers assembled to form spherical nanoparticles in aqueous media following precipitation from a water-miscible organic solvent. 1H NMR studies of the PLA−PEG nanoparticles in D2O confirmed their core−shell structure, with negligible penetration of the hydrated PEG chains into the PLA core. The influence of the PLA block molecular weight on the hydrodynamic size and micellar aggregation number of the assemblies was determined by dynamic and static light scattering techniques. The hydrodynamic radius of the PLA−PEG 2:5−30:5 nanoparticles was solely dependent on the copolymer architecture and scaled linearly as NPLA1/3, wh...

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