Disulfide bonds-containing amphiphilic conetworks with tunable reductive-cleavage

In this contribution, we reported reduction-cleavable amphiphilic conetworks (APCNs) by copper(i)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) of azide terminated disulfide bonds-containing poly(ϵ-caprolactone) (A₂ macromonomer) and alkyne-terminated 4-arm polyethylene glycol (B₄ macromonomer). The ratio of hydrophobic to hydrophilic parts of the APCNs was tuned by chain length of the A₂ macromonomer, which gave a convenient way to control swelling capacity in an aqueous or organic phase. The swelling ratio of APCNs is up to 1100% and 1450% in water and tetrahydrofuran, respectively, with a rapid cleavage at a 5 mg mL^-1 dithiothreitol concentration. The reduction-cleavable, swelling controllable APCNs are expected to possess potential for application in drug delivery systems and regeneration medicine.