Photo-Crosslinked Polymer Cubosomes as Recyclable Nanoreactor in Organic Solvents

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Polymer cubosomes are an emerging class of porous structures formed by the self-assembly of BCP with asymmetric block ratio. The internal nanochannel networks of a cubosome provide a large surface area and internal volume to tether catalysts, which makes this porous structure a promising candidate for nanoreactors. Herein, we report the synthesis of BCPs composed of PEG hydrophilic and p(pFS-co-Sty) hydrophobic block. The pFS groups in the hydrophobic block could be easily functionalized with N3 groups by post-polymerization modification. The binary mixture of branched-linear and catalyst-functionalized linear BCP self-assembled into polymer cubosomes having surface-tethered catalysts, which was crosslinked by UV. We show that the resulting nanoreactors could catalyze the asymmetric aldol reaction at an enhanced rate compared to the homogeneous catalysts. These robust nanoreactors performed the catalysis repeatedly after multiple recycling without losing their efficiency and integrity.