Investigating the influence of hydrophobicity on the thermoresponsive behavior of statistical copolymers

Akar, Irem (2023). Investigating the influence of hydrophobicity on the thermoresponsive behavior of statistical copolymers. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Thermoresponsive polymers have gained interest over many decades and have been used in diverse applications such as bioseparation, tissue engineering and drug delivery owing to their readily tunable nature. Several ways to tune the thermoresponsive behavior of polymers have been reported, providing a wide range of opportunities to design polymeric systems as required for specific applications. The aim of this project was to investigate the effect of polymer hydrophobicity on tuning the thermoresponsive behavior of statistical amphiphilic copolymers achieved via reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization and explore the biological efficacy of thermoresponsive nanoparticles functionalized with therapeutic moieties. Importantly, a computational tool was used for the determination of hydrophobicity of the produced copolymers, and it was aimed to correlate the values that represented polymer hydrophobicity to the measured macroscopic changes in the polymer solution upon change in temperature. The findings of these studies are expected to provide insight into the design of new functional copolymers with required thermoresponsiveness. Moreover, thermoresponsive nanoparticles were developed via polymerization-induced thermal self-assembly (PITSA) benefiting the versatile, easy applicable and robust nature of this technique. Functionalization of these nanoparticles with therapeutic synthetic peptides was achieved to explore the stability and of the nanoparticles. These studies are expected to contribute to future studies in creating functional drug delivery systems.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):