Amphiphilic Amylose-g-poly(meth)acrylate Copolymers through Click onto Grafting Method

Periodate oxidation and subsequent reductive amination with propargylamine was adopted for the controlled functionalization of amylose with alkyne groups, while ATRP polymerization was exploited to obtain end-(±)- or end-(É)- azide functionalized poly(meth)acrylates to be used as “click” reagents in Cu(I) catalyzed azide-alkyne [3+2] dipolar cycloaddition. Amylose grafted with poly(n-butyl acrylate), poly(n-butyl methacrylate), poly(n-hexyl methacrylate) and poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) were effectively synthesized with this strategy. Their structure and composition were confirmed by FT-IR, NMR spectroscopies and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Dynamic and static light scattering analyses, as well as TEM microscopy showed that the most amphiphilic among these hybrid graft copolymers self-assembled in water yielding nanoparticles with ca. 30 nm diameter.