Poly(2-oxazoline) glycopolymers with tunable LCST behavior

A series of thermo-responsive glyco-poly(2-oxazoline)s based on 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline and 2-(dec-9-enyl)-2-oxazoline were prepared. To study the effect of the sugar content on the solution behavior in water, two sets of copolymers with constant monomer-to-initiator ratios of 20 and 50 and varying amounts of the hydrophobic alkene functionalized monomer were synthesized. The glycopolymers were obtained by the photoaddition of 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-1-thio-β-D-glycopyranose onto the double bonds followed by deacetylation of the saccharide residues. Turbidimetry measurements of the respective glycopolymers revealed a decreasing cloud point temperature with increasing amount of sugar moieties, proposed to be caused by hydrogen bonding between the sugars and the polymer amide groups, which is enabled by the flexibility of the long decyl spacer. Due to the linear relationship between cloud point temperatures and the sugar content, the cloud points can be easily tailored for specific applications.