Degradable graft copolymers by ring-opening and reverse addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerizationElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c2py20213a

The synthesis and controlled ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of a six membered cyclic carbonate monomer with pendant reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) functionality is reported. The growth of fast propagating monomers (methyl acrylate, tetrahydropyran acrylate and N -isopropylacrylamide) from the obtained RAFT-functional poly(carbonate)s resulted in the formation of well-defined graft copolymers with a biodegradable backbone, when grafting was terminated at low monomer conversions ( ca. 30%). Direct dissolution of the thermally responsive poly(carbonate)- graft -PNiPAm copolymer yielded spherical micelles as confirmed by DLS and TEM analysis. The synthesis and controlled sequential ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of a six-membered cyclic carbonate monomer and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization is reported to be an efficient method for the synthesis of graft copolymers that can be self-assembled into responsive polymer nanoparticles.