Novel aliphatic poly(ester‐carbonate) with pendant allyl ester groups and its folic acid functionalization

A series of novel poly(ester‐carbonate)s bearing pendant allyl ester groups P(LA‐ co ‐MAC)s were prepared by ring‐opening copolymerization of L ‐lactide (LA) and 5‐methyl‐5‐allyloxycarbonyl‐1,3‐dioxan‐2‐one (MAC) with diethyl zinc (ZnEt 2 ) as initiator. NMR analysis investigated the microstructure of the copolymer. DSC results indicated that the copolymers displayed a single glass‐transition temperature ( T g ), which was indicative of a random copolymer, and the T g decreased with increasing carbonate content in the copolymer. Then NHS‐activated folic acid (FA) first reacted with 2‐aminoethanethiol to yield FA‐SH; grafting FA‐SH to P(LA‐ co ‐MAC) in the presence of TEA produced P(LA‐ co ‐MAC)/FA. The structure of P(LA‐ co ‐MAC)/FA and its precursor were confirmed by 1 H NMR and XPS analysis. Cell experiments showed that FA‐grafted P(LA‐ co ‐MAC) had improved adhesion and proliferation behavior of vero cells on the polymer films. Therefore, the novel FA‐grafted block copolymer is expected to find application in drug delivery or tissue engineering.