(190g) Synthesis of Peg/PCL-Based Polyurethane Nanoparticles by Miniemulsion Polymerization for Pharmaceutical Applications

In recent years polymeric nanoparticles have gained increasing popularity as promising vehicles for the delivery of drugs and others agents in a variety of biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.  More recently, the development of colloidal delivery systems from biodegradable polyurethanes (PU) has attracted increasing interest as the highly variable synthetic chemistry of PU may be exploited to generate polymers having properties ranging from very soft elastomers to very rigid plastics.

In this presentation we will discuss the preparation of PU nanoparticles by miniemulsion interfacial polymerization using isophoronediisocyanate (IPDI), poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL), and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG).  The effect of Tween 80 and sodium dodecyl sulfate as surfactants, and the effect of PEG molar mass on the stability, size and morphology of nanoparticles will be discussed.  This is a particularly interesting and facile strategy for the formation of sub 100nm nanoparticles, and for the control of the chemistry of the particle shell, and for the grafting of PEG onto the particle.