Molecular Dynamics Simulations Combined with Large Angle X-ray Scattering Technique for the Determination of the Structure, Conformation, and Conformational Dynamics of Polyphosphazenes in Amorphous Phase: Study of Poly[di(4-methylphenoxy)phosphazene]

Cyclo- and Polyphosphazenes for Biomedical Applications

Cyclic and polyphosphazenes are extremely interesting and versatile substrates characterized by the presence of -P=N- repeating units. The chlorine atoms on the P atoms in the starting materials can be easily substituted with a variety of organic substituents, thus giving rise to a huge number of new materials for industrial applications. Their properties can be designed considering the number of repetitive units and the nature of the substituent groups, opening up to a number of peculiar properties, including the ability to give rise to supramolecular arrangements. We focused our attention on the extensive scientific literature concerning their biomedical applications: as antimicrobial agents in drug delivery, as immunoadjuvants in tissue engineering, in innovative anticancer therapies, and treatments for cardiovascular diseases. The promising perspectives for their biomedical use rise from the opportunity to combine the benefits of the inorganic backbone and the wide variety of organic side groups that can lead to the formation of nanoparticles, polymersomes, or scaffolds for cell proliferation. In this review, some aspects of the preparation of phosphazene-based systems and their characterization, together with some of the most relevant chemical strategies to obtain biomaterials, have been described.

A Computational Procedure for Atomistic Modelling of Polyphosphazenes towards Better Capturing Molecular-Level Structuring and Thermo-Mechanical Properties

Poly(phosphazenes)(PZ) are versatile polymers due to their tunable properties that can be tailored for specific applications. Despite extensive experimental research, not all properties are tested, and the list of PZs studied via molecular simulations is limited. Further, a general procedure to generate and test PZ systems is lacking. We present an in situ polymerization procedure developed to make, test, and tune the thermo-mechanical properties of four PZs-poly(dichlorophosphazene)(PZ-DC), poly[bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)]phosphazene (PZ-TFE), poly(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy-5,6-diazidohexanoxy) phosphazene (PZ-Azido), and poly(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy-5,6-dinitratohexanoxy)phosphazene (PZ-Nitrato) via molecular dynamics simulations. The predicted thermo-mechanical properties (i.e., density and glass transition temperature) agreed with experimental values when a direct comparison of PZ systems was possible. This demonstrates the reproducibility and reliability of our procedure which will help understand the behaviour of PZs at the molecular scale.

Structural features and molecular assembly of amorphous phosphazenic materials in the bulk--combined theoretical and experimental techniques: Tris-(2,2'-dioxy-1,1'-binaphthyl)cyclotriphosphazen

The structure and the assembly of tris-(2,2'-dioxy-binaphthyl)cyclotriphosphazene [(+)-[NP3(O2C20H12)3], DBNP, in the solid amorphous state was studied using molecular dynamics (MD) including ad hoc quantum mechanically derived force field (FF) parameters, in combination with the energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXD) technique. The atom-atom radial distribution function (RDF) curve obtained through the EDXD experiment revealed low intensity peaks not attributable to the intramolecular distances of the single molecule, but clearly featuring a low energy state of long-distance three-dimensional assembly. The radial distribution functions (RDF) were calculated for various models of DBNP submitted to theoretical MD simulations. Based on the comparison of theoretically calculated RDFs and those obtained from the EDXD experiment, the predominant structural motif of the material in the bulk was found to have DBNP molecules laid one upon the other to form tubular nanostructures. These contain eight DBNP units each (length ca. 46 A) with two and three of these units aligned in parallel and held together. The material can be represented as a bulk of tubular snake-like chains undergoing distortions with a step of eight DBNP units. The bending angles, that vary randomly, attain limited values sufficient to induce disorder and thus nonperiodic structure. The present application of MD simulations combined with EDXD data appear to be a general approach to solve for the first time otherwise intractable issues concerning structural features and assembly of molecular materials in the bulk.