Synthesis and characterization of novel fluorescent amphiphilic diblock copolymer

Abstract

In the present study, an amphiphilic diblock copolymer made of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PTHF) was synthesized via ring opening polymerization (ROP) of e-caprolactone (CL) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) with rose bengal (RB) as a bridging agent in a two-step process. In the first step, RB–PCL was synthesized by the ROP of CL, while in the second step the diblock copolymer was prepared by the ROP of THF with RB–PCL moiety as a chemical initiator in the presence of phthalic anhydride (PAH) as a co-monomer. The diblock copolymer was characterized by 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infra red (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and EDX studies.