Facile Preparation of Polysarcosine-Tethered Inorganic Nanospheres by Using Unimolecular Polypept(o)ides as Template

Polymer-inorganic nanocomposites that integrate the advantages of both polymers and inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are broadly exploited for versatile applications. Especially, emerging polymer-templated preparation of inorganic NPs has drawn extensive attention, which is ascribed to simplified synthesis and feasible tunability. However, how to precisely fabricate biocompatible polymer-inorganic NPs remains unsolved. In this article, by mild ring opening polymerization (ROP) of beta-benzyl L-aspartate N-carboxyanhydrides (BLA-NCAs) and sarcosine N-carboxyanhydrides (Sar-NCAs) and subsequent debenzylation, a series of poly(amino acid)-based unimolecular micelles (PAMAM-g-(PLA-b-PSar)) are facilely synthesized. Afterward, by utilization of these star-like polymers as template, the controllable preparation of various PSar-tethered inorganic NPs is investigated and characterized meticulously. This general strategy for the preparation of PSar-tethered inorganic NPs can bring a great chance for future fabrication of biomedical nanoplatforms. This article demonstrates a general strategy for the fabrication of polysarcosine (PSar)-tethered NPs via unimolecular polymer template. These polymer templates can be precisely synthesized by mild NCA-ROP method. Then various PSar-tethered NPs including Ag, Fe3O4, CaCO3, and MnCO3 NPs are facilely prepared and characterized, which can bring a great chance for future construction of biomedical polymer-inorganic hybrid nanoplatforms. image