Dual Gas-responsive Fluorescent Diblock Copolymer Synthesized via RAFT Polymerization

Stimulus-responsive polymers with luminescence properties have a wide range of applications in the fields of controlled drug release, fluorescent probes, and biological stents. In this paper, carbon dioxide (CO₂)/oxygen (O₂) dual-responsive fluorescent diblock copolymers were synthesized by the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization method with two fluorescent monomers synthesized as its luminescence source, DEAEMA (CO₂ responsive monomer) and tFMA (O₂ responsive monomer). An experimental study demonstrated that the synthesized stimulus-responsive fluorescent polymer had a high sensitivity to CO₂; the double-responsive fluorescent diblock copolymer could form and achieve the reversal of polymer micelles in the aqueous solution when it was sequentially subjected to the introduction of CO₂ and O₂.