Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers (The Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
Abstract:
This paper reports a novel amphoteric aliphatic polycarbonate bearing both amine and carboxyl groups. In the absence of protection‐deprotection chemistry, the multi‐functionalized copolymer is synthesized by one‐step enzymatic copolymerization. The influences of the reaction conditions including monomer feed ratio and polymerization time are explored. The simultaneous incorporation of amine and carboxyl functionalities provides the copolymer with a pH‐tunable self‐aggregation feature, leading to various aggregation states including precipitated agglomerate, well‐dispersed positively or negatively charged nanoparticles in a controlled manner. The copolymer displays minimal cytotoxicity to 293T and HeLa cells.