Synthesis and characterization of substrates for grafting polymers used in medical plastics

Abstract This synthetic overview describes the formation and characterization of branched substrates for future use in obtaining graft copolymers with characteristics appropriate for medical plastics. Due to the critical necessity of medical devices, optimization of materials used in their production is of substantial interest. The substrate synthesis was varied by utilizing reactants with different heteroatoms (e.g., diols, dithiols) and chain lengths. Although sixteen new molecules were synthesized and confirmed by high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), the reaction conditions and purification methodology require further optimization before subsequent use. The objective of this research was to synthesize novel substrates for altering the physical properties of polymers used for clinical applications. Experimental results and crude spectral data analysis are provided herein for newly synthesized compounds.