Stereocontrolled, multi-functional sequence-defined oligomers through automated synthesis

Chiel Mertens, Matthieu Soete, Marcin L. Ślȩczkowski, Anja R.A. Palmans, E. W. Meijer, Nezha Badi, Filip E. Du Prez (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In contrast to biomacromolecules, synthetic polymers generally lack a defined monomer sequence, therefore one of the challenges of polymer chemists these days is gaining more control over the primary structure of synthetic polymers and oligomers. In this work, stereocontrolled sequence-defined oligomers were synthesised using a thiolactone-based platform. Step-wise elongation of the oligomer occurs via ring-opening of the thiolactone, resulting in the formation of stereocenters along the backbone. These initial studies indicate remarkable differences in the strength of non-covalent interactions in isotactic and atactic oligomers. Different side-chain moieties were introduced using alkyl halide building blocks and the synthetic protocol was succesfully optimised and automated. Furthermore, the possible post-synthesis modification of the oligomers was demonstrated using 'click' chemistry.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4271-4280
Number of pages10
JournalPolymer Chemistry
Volume11
Issue number26
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jul 2020

Funding

C. M. would like to acknowledge funding of his Ph.D. scholarship from the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University. M. S. would like to acknowledge the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) for the funding of his Ph.D. scholarship under application number 1SA3820N. F. D. P. would like to acknowledge financial support from the FWO under EOS-project 30650939. The authors would like to thank Dr Steven Martens for the help with the chiral resolution, Jos Van Den Begin for the assistance with the liquid handling robot used in this work, Jan Goeman for the LCMS measurements and Bernhard De Meyer.

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