Effect of the shell on the transport properties of poly(glycerol) and poly(ethylene imine) nanoparticles

Dendritic core-shell architectures containing poly (glycerol) and poly (ethylene imine) cores and poly(lactide) shell (PG-PLA and PEI-PLA respectively) were synthesized. Analogous of these core-shell architectures containing the same cores but poly (L-lactide) shell (PG-PLLA and PEI-PLLA, respectively) were also synthesized. In this work PG and PEI were used as macroinitiator for ring opening polymerization of the lactid and L-lactide monomers. Different molar ratios of monomer to end functional groups of PG ([LA]/[OH]) and PEI ([LA]/[NHn] (n = 1 or 2)) were used to prepare the core-shell architectures with different shell thickness. These core-shell architectures were able to encapsulate and transport the small guest molecules. Their transport capacity (TC) depended on the type and thickness of the shells. TC of core-shell architectures containing PLLA shell was higher than that for their analogs containing PLA shell. The diameter of core-shell architectures was between 20-80 nm. The rate of release of guest molecules from chloroform solution of nanocarriers to water phase was investigated and it depended on the type of the core, shell and solvent.