Amine-Functionalized Polyacrylamide for Labeling and Crosslinking Purposes

Abstract Free radical copolymerization of acrylamide with N ‐(3‐aminopropyl)‐methacrylamide yields water‐soluble polymers with randomly distributed pendent nucleophilic amine moieties. The copolymerization parameters were determined to be r 1 = 0.49 and r 2 = 0.85. A procedure which allows controlling the degree of functionalization and the molecular weight is described in detail. Copolymers with low amounts of functional groups were used to synthesize polymers with fluoresceine or rhodamine side groups as fluorescence labels. Furthermore, reaction of the amine moieties of the copolymers with glutaraldehyde under suitable conditions provides a way to generate polymer networks via random crosslinking of existent chains in a semi‐dilute solution. magnified image