Structural and Thermal Studies of Fluorescein and Rhodamin6G Grafted Diblock Copolymers

R Anbarasan,B Meenarathi,V Parthasarathy

doi:10.1007/s10904-021-01978-3

Abstract

The ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of tetrahydrofuran (THF) and ε-caprolactone (CL) was performed at 160 °C for 2 h under N2 ambiance using two different dyes such as fluorescein (Flur) and rhodamin6G (R6G) as a novel initiator. The structure of the dye-centered diblock copolymers was confirmed by analyzing the NMR spectra. The melt transition temperature and thermal stability of the polymers were determined by DSC and TGA. The FT-IR spectra indicated the functional groups present in the dye grafted homopolymer and diblock copolymers. The increase in molecular weight (Mw) of the dye-centered diblock copolymer was confirmed by the GPC measurement. The conjugation of dye with the polymer backbone was carried out by a single-step method without using any hazardous solvents.

Highlights

The biomedical polymers such as poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PTHF) and poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) have been received much attention because of their biocompatibility and less cytotoxicity
It is well known that Flur is a xanthene type dye which consists of hydroxyl, carboxyl, ketone, ether, aromatic C = C like functionalities
The FT-IR spectra revealed a doublet peak at 1730 cm-1 due to carbonyl stretching of PCL and PAH, which proved the formation of the diblock copolymer

Summary

Introduction

The biomedical polymers such as poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PTHF) and poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) have been received much attention because of their biocompatibility and less cytotoxicity They are prepared by the ROP technique in the presence of a catalyst and an initiator. The chloromethylaryloyl was employed as an initiator for the ROP of THF by Kohsaka et al [2]. Zhang et al [5] investigated the initiating efficiency of alkoxides towards the anionic ROP of THF. The reports on Flur and R6G initiated ROP of THF are scarce in the literature. The significance of this present work is to prepare the fluorescent dye tagged PTHF without using any hazardous solvents during the synthesis process

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion