Superparticles Formed by Amphiphilic Tadpole-like Single Chain Polymeric Nanoparticles and Their Application as an Ultrasonic Responsive Drug Carrier

Herein, we report self-assembly of tadpole-like single chain polymeric nanoparticles (TPPs) and the ultrasonic response of the resultant superparticles. The TPPs are with an intramolecularly crosslinked poly(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl pent-4-ynoate)-r-poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PMAEP-r-PHEMA) chain as the "head" and a poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (PDMAEMA) linear chain as the "tail", and are pre-pared simply and efficiently by Glaser-coupling of the pendant alkynes in the PMAEP-r-PHEMA block in the common solvent methanol. The formation of the TPPs was confirmed by gel permeation chromatograph, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, static dynamic scattering, and transmission electron microscopy. In aqueous solution, the amphiphilic TPPs could self-assemble into regular superparticles, driven by ag-gregation of the hydrophobic "heads". Since in the structure there is no chain entanglement and the embedding of PDMAEMA chains disturb close-packing of the "heads", the superpar-ticles are responsive to a low-energy ultrasonic vibration, as evidenced by greatly enhanced release of the functional molecules from the superparticles by treatment of a low-energy ultrasound. Therefore, the superparticles should be very promising in the use as the drug carriers that can be manipulated from a long distance, considering that ultrasonic energy can be focused at a small area in a relatively long distance from the ultrasound-radiating source.