Biocompatible, thermoresponsive, and biodegradable:: Simple preparation of "all-in-one" biorelevant polymers

The preparation of smart PEG-based materials through a simple one pot atom transfer radical terpolymerization was investigated. PEG-based polymers were synthesized by using straightforward controlled radical polymerization techniques such as atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). It was observed that the atom transfer radical copolymerization of two oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylates of different chain lengths, namely 2-(-methoxy ethoxy)ethyl methacrylate (MEO2MA, scheme 1), leads to the formation of thermoresponsive copolymers with precisely tunable lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in water. The NMR analysis of the raw polymerization mixtures confirmed that the overall conversion of MEO2MA and OEGMA was almost quantitative in all cases. The enzymatic degradation of P(MEO 2MA-co-OEGMA-co-BMDO) were incubated at 37°C in the presence of immobilized Canadian antarctica lipases.