The First Example of a Model Amphiphilic Polymer Conetwork Containing a Hydrophobic Oligopeptide: The Case of End-Linked Tetra[Poly(ethylene glycol)-b-oligo(L-alanine)]
Herein we describe the development of the first <i>model</i> amphiphilic polymer conetwork (APCN) comprising a short hydrophobic hexa(<i>L</i>-alanine) segment being the outer block of an amphiphilic four-armed star block copolymer with inner poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) blocks bearing benzaldehyde terminal groups and end-linked with another four-armed star PEG homopolymer (tetraPEG star) bearing aryl-substituted acylhydrazide terminal groups. The present successful synthesis that yielded the peptide-containing model APCN was preceded by several unsuccessful efforts that followed different synthetic strategies. In addition to the synthetic work, we also present the structural characterization of the peptide-bearing APCN in D<sub>2</sub>O using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS).
Authors
- Iro Kyroglou
- Takamasa Sakai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5052-0512)
- Maria Kasimatis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6632-9832)
- Hermis Iatrou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9358-0769)
- Sylvain Prévost (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6008-1987)
- Demetris E. Apostolides
- Michael Gradzielski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7262-7115)
- Costas S. Patrickios (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8855-0370)
- George Michael (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9013-3671)
Institutions
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
- University of Cyprus (CY)
- Institut Laue-Langevin (FR)
- Technische Universität Berlin (DE)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Gels
- Published
- 2025-04-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/gels11050331
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.68
Funders
- Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation
- Research and Innovation Foundation
- University of Nicosia
- European Regional Development Fund