Polymer modification water-soluble

Konjac Konjac is a natural polysaccharide found in plant tubers from Amor-phophallus konjac and produced commercially by FMC (Philadephia, PA). Konjac is a copolymer of glucose and mannose (1 1.6) linked /i-1.4 with random acetylation of approximately monomer units. The polymer is water soluble and as such the applications are limited. Chemical modifications of the konjac as well as liquid crystalline properties have been reported [32]. 

A modification of the electrochemical synthesis of P3TASs was reported by Havinga et al. [6,7]. These authors report the synthesis and electrochemical polymerization of 3 -(3-propylsulfonate) 2,2 5 2"-terthienyl (Figure 20.3). Notably, electrochemical oxidation could be achieved in the absence of interfering foreign electrolytic ions since the monomer itself acted as the supporting electrolyte. The self-doped polymer was water soluble but the resulting polymer solutions were reported to be unstable. 

Chain-Growth Associative Thickeners. Preparation of hydrophobically modified, water-soluble polymer in aqueous media by a chain-growth mechanism presents a unique challenge in that the hydrophobically modified monomers are surface active and form micelles (50). Although the initiation and propagation occurs primarily in the aqueous phase, when the propagating radical enters the micelle the hydrophobically modified monomers then polymerize in blocks. In addition, the hydrophobically modified monomer possesses a different reactivity ratio (42) than the unmodified monomer, and the composition of the polymer chain therefore varies considerably with conversion (57). The most extensively studied monomer of this class has been acrylamide, but there have been others such as the modification of PVAlc. Pyridine (58) was one of the first chain-growth polymers to be hydrophobically modified. This modification is a post-polymerization alkylation reaction and produces a random distribution of hydrophobic units. 

By use of a modification of the well-known Williamson synthesis it is possible to prepare a number of cellulose ethers. Of these materials ethyl cellulose has found a small limited applieation as a moulding material and somewhat greater use for surfaee eoatings. The now obsolete benzyl cellulose was used prior to World War II as a moulding material whilst methyl eellulose, hyroxyethyl eellulose and sodium earboxymethyl eellulose are useful water-soluble polymers. 

Figure 17-5. Amylose, cellulose. Amylose consists of a water-soluble portion, a linear polymer of glucose, the amylose and a water-insoluble portion, the amylopectin. The difference between amylose and cellulose is the way in which the glucose units are linked. In amylose, a-linkages are present, whereas in cellulose, p-linkages are present. Because of this difference, amylose is soluble in water and cellulose is not. Chemical modification allows cellulose to become water soluble.

Fig. 1.14 (A) Single-wall carbon nanotubes wrapped by glyco-conjugate polymer with bioactive sugars. (B) Modification of carboxyl-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes with biocompatible, water-soluble phosphorylcholine and sugar-based polymers. (A) adapted from [195] with permission from Elsevier, and (B) from [35] reproduced by permission of Wiley-VCH.

One of the major drawbacks of SOD as putative pharmaceutical agent is its small plasma half-life. It has been suggested that this shortcoming might be corrected by the chemical modification of SOD, for example, by binding to water-soluble polymers [17] or the entrapment in liposomes [18]. However, it seems that the membrane-permeable, low molecular weight compounds to be more promising for the use as SOD mimics. Two major types of... 

PVA Formation Reaction. Poly(vinyl alcohol) is itself a modified polymer being made by the alcoholysis of poly(vinyl acetate) under acid or base catalysis as shown in Equation 1 (6.7). This polymer cannot be made by a direct polymerization because the vinyl alcohol monomer only exists in the tautomeric form of acetaldehyde. This saponification reaction can also be run on vinyl acetate copolymers and this affords a means of making vinyl alcohol copolymers. The homopolymer is water soluble and softens with decomposition at about 200°C while the properties of the copolymers would vary widely. Poly(vinyl alcohol) has been widely utilized in polymer modification because ... 

HPMA copolymers are water-soluble biocompatible polymers, widely used in anticancer drug delivery (reviewed in Reference [22]). HPMA copolymers containing reactive groups at side-chain termini were previously used for the modification of trypsin [23], chymotrypsin [23,24], and acetylcholinesterase [25]. The modification dramatically increased the acetylcholinesterase survival in the blood stream of mice and the thermostability of modified enzymes when compared to the native proteins. However, the modification involved multipoint attachment of the copolymers to the substrates, which may cause crosslinking. To modify proteins or biomedical surfaces by one point attachment, semitelechelic polymers should be used. 

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