Synthesis and thermoreversible gelation of diblock methylcellulose analogues via Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition

A novel synthetic method to link acetylated cellulose derivatives with methylated cellulose derivatives via Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition was developed to produce 1,2,3-triazole-linked diblock copolymers consisting of hydrophilic cellobiose or low-molecular-weight cellulose and a hydrophobic 2,3,6-tri-O-methyl-cellulose. Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition had the advantage over glycosylation reaction of being able to connect a hydrophilic block having higher molecular weight than cellobiose with a hydrophobic 2,3,6-tri-O-methyl-cellulose block. As a consequence, 2.0 wt% aqueous solutions of the 1,2,3-triazole-linked diblock methylcellulose analogues exhibited the thermoreversible gelation in water at around 25 °C as same as that of β-(1 → 4)-linked diblock methylcellulose. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements of 2.0 wt% aqueous solutions of the diblock copolymers revealed that an important structural factor for its thermoreversible gelation was not a β-(1 → 4)-glycosidic linkage between hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks of diblock methylcellulose, but a sequence of anhydro 2,3,6-tri-O-methyl-glucopyranosyl units and that of unmodified glucopyranosyl ones.