TY - JOUR A1 - Lutz, J.-F. A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Nehring, R. T1 - Preparation by Controlled Radical Polymerization and Self-Assembly via Base-Recognition of Synthetic Polymers Bearing Complementary Nucleobases JF - Journal of polymer science A, polymer chemistry N2 - The radical polymerization of three monomers bearing nucleobases 1-(4-vinylbenzyl)thymine (VBT), 1-(4-vinylbenzyl)uracil (VBU) and 9-(4-vinylbenzyl)adenine (VBA) was investigated. The corresponding homopolymers could be prepared in high yields via conventional radical polymerization. However, the resulting polymers were found to be only soluble in a few polar solvents. On the other hand, copolymers of dodecyl methacrylate (DMA) with either VBT or VBA could be prepared via both free radical polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization and could be dissolved in a large variety of organic solvents. Moreover, the formed complementary copolymers P(VBT-co-DMA) and P(VBA-co-DMA) were found to self-assemble in dilute solutions in dioxane or chloroform via base recognition, as evidenced by a significant hypochromicity effect in UV spectroscopy. Nevertheless, at higher concentrations in chloroform, both dynamic light scattering and optical microscopy indicate that P(VBT-co-DMA), P(VBA-co-DMA), or P(VBT-co-DMA)/P(VBA-co-DMA) mixtures spontaneously self-assemble into micron size spherical aggregates. 1H NMR and FTIR studies confirmed that the self-assembly process is driven in all cases via H-bond formation. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 4805-4818, 2005 KW - ATRP KW - Living polymerization KW - Nucleic acids KW - Polymersomes KW - Self-assembly PY - 2005 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/pola.20976 SN - 0360-6376 SN - 0887-624X VL - 43 IS - 20 SP - 4805 EP - 4818 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken, NJ AN - OPUS4-10842 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -