Green Synthesis and Biomedical Properties of Novel Hydroxypropyl Cellulose-g-Polytetrahydrofuran Graft Copolymers with Silver Nanoparticles

A green approach has been developed for the synthesis of hydroxypropyl cellulose- g -polytetrahydrofuran (HPC- g -PTHF) graft copolymer via combining living cationic ring-opening polymerization and nucleophile substitution reaction. The living PTHF chains ( M n = 3200 g·mol –1 ) were synthesized in bulk initiated by allyl bromide/AgClO 4 without any other hazardous solvents. Then, the living PTHF chains reacted with hydroxyl groups on the HPC backbone with grafting efficiency of ca. 100% to create a series of HPC- g -PTHF graft copolymers with various average grafting numbers ( G N ). The nanosized phase separation micromorphology was dependent on G N in HPC- g -PTHF. The water contact angles on graft copolymer film surfaces increased from 61.7° to 87.7° with increasing G N from 3 to 10 and after annealing treatment. The silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in situ formed from AgClO 4 uniformly dispersed in graft copolymer matrix and Ag contents were close to the theoretical data based on AgClO 4 . The HPC- g -PTHF graft copolymer films show good anti-protein adsorption performance against bull serum albumin. The HPC- g -PTHF/AgNPs compounds present good antibacterial activity.