ABSTRACT
Amphiphilic polyurethanes based on methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) and poly(ϵ-caprolactone) diol (PCL) with different arm numbers such as two, three and four were successfully synthesized. Their structures were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The effects of arm number on properties of amphiphilic polyurethanes were studied. Pyrene fluorescence probe technique and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analyses showed that the CMC value and the micellar size of the resultant amphiphilic polyurethanes decreased and the micellar stability against dilution enhanced with increasing the arm number of polyurethane. Using indometacin (IMC) as a model drug, the results indicated that the drug loading capacity and in vitro drug sustained release effect of polyurethane with four arms were better than those of polyurethanes with two and three arms.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate School of Wuhan University of Science and Technology (No. JCX2015045), Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation (No. 2010CDB03501), the Open Project Program of Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion and New Carbon Materials (No. WKDM201105). The authors are grateful for the innovative team of bioaugmentation and advanced treatment on metallurgical industry wastewater.