Degradable poly(ester triazole)s based on renewable resources

The copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) click polymerization has been used to obtain novel linear poly(ester triazole)s by reaction of bis-alkyne having ester linkage and bis-azido monomers, most of them derived from carbohydrates, such as glucose, arabinose, and erythrose, and therefore coming from natural renewable resources. The resulting polyesters had weight-average molecular weights in the 11,500–148,000 range and were characterized by GPC, IR, and NMR spectroscopies. Thermal studies revealed them to be amorphous and stable up to 200 °C under nitrogen. Degradation studies showed that they were hydrolytically degradable. These studies were carried out at 50 °C in phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.4, and were monitored by GPC, and NMR spectroscopy. Finally, novel network hydrogels were obtained by crosslinking reaction of the poly(ester triazole) chains with hexamethylene diisocyanate. The water absorption and the kinetic parameters of the networks were studied. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 2481–2493