POLYMERIZATION OF THIOL, VINYL AND GLYCOL ESTERS

Organski sintetični polimeri so najštevilčnejša skupina polimerov. Mednje spadajo tudi poliHIPE materiali, ki so raziskovalcem zanimivi že vrsto let, saj jim njihove posebne lastnosti –kot je poroznost– omogočajo uporabo na številnih področjih. Eno teh je tkivno inženirstvo (TI), kjer poliHIPE materiali nastopajo kot nosilci za naselitev, rast in razmnoževanje celic, ki prerastejo v tkivo ali cel organ. S takšnim biološkim nadomestkom lahko zamenjamo poškodovana ali manjkajoča tkiva ter organe. Namen tega magistrskega dela je bila sinteza treh poliHIPE materialov: tiolnega poliestra iz tetrakis(3-merkaptopropionata)-co-trimetilolpropan triakrilata (TT-co-TMPTA) v molskem razmerju 3:4, vinilnega poliestra poli(glicerol sebacat akrilata) (PGSA) ter glikolnega poliestra poli(etilen glikol) metil eter metakrilata (PEGMA). Brez težav smo TT-co-TMPTA polimerizirali v masi. Uspešno smo pripravili poliHIPE iz TT-co-TMPTA in dokazali, da je razgradljiv v šibko alkalnih medijih (0,05 M NaOH) ter raztopini PBS pufra. Sinteza PGSA nam ni uspelapri sintezi predpolimera poli(glicerol sebacata) je prišlo do prevelikega zamreženja, saj so reagirale vse tri glicerolne hidroksilne skupine in tako nadaljnja akrilacija ni mogla poteči. Zato smo poskusili z zaščito hidroksilnih skupin v glicerolu in tako sintetizirali solketal, le-tega akrilirali in ga tudi v masi polimerizirali ter dobili poli(solketal akrilat) (PSA). Tega smo prav tako skušali sintetizirati kot poliHIPE, a smo bili neuspešni, tako kot tudi pri poliHIPE-u iz PEGMA. V magistrskem delu so predstavljene teoretske osnove reakcij polimerizacije, priprave poliHIPE materialov, metod za njihovo karakterizacijo ter tkivno inženirstvo, podrobni opisi sintez ter zbrani rezultati z razlago.Organic synthetic polymers are the largest group of polymers which include polyHIPE materials that have been of great interest to researchers for many years. Because of their special properties –such as porosity- they can be used in many areas. One of them is tissue engineering (TE), where polyHIPE materials act as scaffolds for attachment, growth and reproduction of cells that grow into tissue or whole organ. Such biological substitutes can replace damaged or missing tissues and organs. The aim of this work was to synthesize three polyHIPE materials: a thiol polyester of pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate)-co-trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TT-co-TMPTA) in a molar ratio of 3:4, a vinyl polyester of poly(glycerol sebacate acrylate) (PGSA) and a glycol polyester of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA). TT-co-TMPTA in bulk was synthesized with no difficulties. PolyHIPE of TT-co-TMPTA was also successfully prepared and showed its degradability in weakly alkaline media (0,05 M NaOH) and in PBS buffer solution. Synthesis of PGSA was not acomplishedin the synthesis of a prepolymer poly(glycerol sebacate) too much cross-linking occured, since all three -OH groups of glycerol had reacted, thus it was impossible to proceed with further acrylation. Therefore, protection of the -OH groups in glycerol was successfully carried out and thus solketal was synthesized, acrylated and (due to non-selective hydrolysis to release -OH groups and disabled continuation of PGSA synthesis) poly(solketal acrylate) (PSA) was polymerized in bulk. We also tryed to synthesize it as a polyHIPE, but were unsuccessful as well as with the polyHIPE of PEGMA. This work presents theoretical foundations of polymerization reactions, preparation of polyHIPE materials, methods for their characterization and tissue engineering, detailed descriptions of syntheses and results with interpretation