Glycidyl methacrylate derivatization of alpha,beta-poly(N-hydroxyethyl)-DL-aspartamide and alpha,beta-polyasparthydrazide

alpha,beta-Poly(N-hydroxyethyl)-DL-aspartamide (PHEA) and alpha,beta-polyasparthydrazide (PAHy) are two synthetic macromolecules having many potential applications in the field of biomedical sciences. This paper describes the functionalization of PHEA and PAHy with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), in order to introduce pendant double bonds in their chains. Derivatized PHEA and PAHy (samples PHG and FAG, respectively) at various GMA content have been obtained and characterized. It has been shown that the derivatization reaction can be controlled by varying some parameters as solvent, catalyst, pH, GMA concentration and reaction time. As expected, PAHy reacted more rapidly and more extensively than PHEA, reasonably because of the higher nucleophilicity of hydrazine groups. Besides, it has been observed that PHG and FAG aqueous solutions easily crosslink by gamma radiation processing and a correlation has been found between gel doses and derivatization degrees of the copolymers. The results of this study demonstrate that introduction of pendant double bonds in side chains of PHEA and PAHy is a suitable method to prepare macromolecular networks. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.