Application of glycerol in the synthesis of hyperbranched and highly branched polyethers: Characterization, morphology and mechanism proposal

Abstract

Hyperbranched biopolymers is an important class of polymer that is used in different areas, mainly in biomedicine. AB2 monomers are crucial to the development of a "hyperbranched" architecture of polyglycerol, being glycidol the most commonly used, even considering its environmental hazard. Glycerol carbonate is an ecologically accepted monomer synthesized directly from glycerol, and the chosen for the studies herein. In literature, no studies described the use of glycerol and cyclic carbonates to prepare hyperbranched polymers. This work describes the obtainment of hyperbranched polymers using glycerol and TMP salt as core-initiator and glycerol carbonate and propylene carbonate as monomers. The polymers were characterized by FTIR, NMR, MALDI-TOF and TEM. NMR spectroscopy showed linear, dendritic, and terminal units of hyperbranched polymer. The degree of branching PGLYGC and PTMPGC was 0.669 and 0.667, respectively. The molecular weight of PTMCGC, PTMPPC, PGLYPC was found and compared with MALDI. The molar mass was not different from the calculated by Inverse Gated. These polymers have enormous potential as drug delivery and an environmentally correct synthetic route due to the substitution of glycidol by biocompatible monomers.