Synthesis of coumarin-containing poly(2-oxazoline)s and light-induced crosslinking for hydrogel formation

Herein, we present a new route to synthesize poly(2-oxazoline)s (POx) with coumarin moieties as pendant groups that can be crosslinked by irradiation to form hydrogels. The synthesis of a novel coumarin-containing 2-oxazoline monomer, 2-[(4-methyl-7-coumarinyloxy)methyl]oxazoline is described in four steps and further its subsequent homo- and copolymerization with 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline (EtOx) via cationic ring-opening polymerization (CROP). The received polymers with different coumarin content (8, 4 and 2 mol%) were compared with a known copolymer synthesized via postpolymerization modification of partially hydrolyzed poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEtOx) with a coumarin derivative. The thermoresponsive behavior of the POx in aqueous solutions was investigated, showing a clear difference in the cloud point temperature (T(cp)) between the polymers synthesized via different strategies. The hydrogel formation was achieved by irradiation with UV light by the following two methods: on the one hand with the pure coumarin-containing POx and on the other hand mixed with poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA). The obtained hydrogels were compared regarding their swelling degree and their gel content, whereas the swelling degree in water of prepared hydrogels can be tuned by using POx by varying the coumarin content. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00706-022-03013-8.