Nanoengineering of Lu(III) Bisphthalocyanine-Cored Polycaprolactone Polymers and Nanoparticles

Abstract

Double-decker (DD) lanthanide complexes of phthalocyanines have peculiar properties, but their structures are rarely functionalized or incorporated into nanomaterials. This work has been conceived to explore the feasibility of using hydroxylated DD complexes as an initiator for Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) polymerization, with different PCL lengths, and to investigate whether NPs suspended in water can be obtained via the self-encapsulation of these polymers by a nanoprecipitation process. Several structural and experimental parameters have been tested for the nanoprecipitation process to study their potential effects on the NP characteristics.