Abstract
A bibliographic review relating to grafted copolymers being both cationic, or amphoteric, and partially degradable allowed to highlight the lack of such compounds in the current literature. The aim of this thesis is to generate such compounds starting with poly((e-caprolactone) (PCL) as raw material and using an anionic modification method newly described for this polyester. Two main strategies based on a macropolycarbanionic PCL intermediate were followed. The first strategy uses the macropolycarbanion as a nucleophilic agent able to react with small electrophilic organic molecules. These substitution reactions allowed us to synthesise PCL based copolymers containing from 10 to 15% of functionalized units bearing cationic (ammonium, phosphonium), or hydrophilic groups (amine, carboxylic acid). These functionalized PCL can be further used within post-modification reactions. The second strategy uses the macropolycarbanion as a macroinitiator for anionic polymerization. Different families of monomers were tested, vinylic type (4-VP, N-VP), acrylic type (DMAEM, MAPEG), acrylamide type (DMA, DMAPMA) and cyclic ones (a-amino acids). Grafted water-soluble copolymers exhibiting a PCL main chain were thus obtained. These new compounds are potentially partially degradable and form spontaneously nanometric micelle-like objects in water. Finally, we describe the use of an iodo-PCL derivative as a macro transfer agent which is an innovative use of the iodine transfer polymerization technique leading to new grafted copolymers.