Polymer protective groups

The use of protecting groups in polymerization is the preferred laboratory method for preparing many functional polymers. Protecting group methods have allowed the synthesis of otherwise difficult to synthesize functional and reactive polymers. Industrial applications are expected to be more in the specialty rather than commodity polymer area because of the costs associated with the protection and deprotection steps. For exanple, FMC has just announced a new line of protected functional anionic initiators for use in specialty block polymer synthesis. Commodity polymer applications will have to await the development of new catalysts that not only tolerate functionality but also incorporate it in a single step. 

Fig. 23. Representative protecting groups for phenolic and carboxylic acid-based systems, (a) The polymer-based protecting groups are fisted in order of increasing activation energy for acid-catalyzed deprotection, (b) Acid-labile monomeric dissolution inhibitors, a bifunctional system based on protected bisphenol A. (c) Another system that combines the function of dissolution inhibitor and PAG in a single unit.

E. C. Blossey and D. C. Neckers, Eds., Solid Phase Synthesis, Halsted, New York, 1975 P. Hodge and D. C. Sherrington, Eds., Polymer-Supported Reactions in Organic Synthesis, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1980. A comprehensive review of polymeric protective groups by J. M. J. Frechet is included in this book. 

A benzylidene acetal is a commonly used protective group for 1,2- and 1,3-diols. In the case of a 1,2,3-triol the 1,3-acetal is the preferred product. It has the advantage that it can be removed under neutral conditions by hydrogenolysis or by acid hydrolysis. Benzyl groups and isolated olefins have been hydrogenated in the presence of 1,3-benzylidene acetals. Benzylidene acetals of 1,2-diols are more susceptible to hydrogenolysis than are those of 1,3-diols. In fact, the former can be removed in the presence of the latter. A polymer-bound benzylidene acetal has also been prepared." ... 

The first, and still widely used, polymer-supported ester is formed from an amino acid and a chloromethylated copolymer of styrene-divinylbenzene. Originally it was cleaved by basic hydrolysis (2 N NaOH, FtOH, 25°, 1 h). Subsequently, it has been cleaved by hydrogenolysis (H2/Pd-C, DMF, 40°, 60 psi, 24 h, 71% yield), and by HF, which concurrently removes many amine protective groups. Monoesterification of a symmetrical dicarboxylic acid chloride can be effected by reaction with a hydroxymethyl copolymer of styrene-divinylbenzene to give an ester a mono salt of a diacid was converted into a dibenzyl polymer. ... 

The protective group is removed by mildly alkaline conditions that do not cleave methyl or benzyl esters. The group is stable to CF3COOH, HCl-AcOH, and HBr-AcOH. A polymer-bound version of this group has also been developed. ... 

There is a large range of resins available for SPOS. These resins are derivatised polymer supports with a range of linkers. The roles of linkers are (i) to provide point(s) of attachment for the tethered molecule, akin to a solid supported protecting group(s), (ii) to provide distance from the polymeric backbone in order to minimise interactions with the backbone, (iii) to enable cleavage of product molecules under conditions compatible with the stability of the molecules and the reaction conditions employed for chemical transformations. Hence in order to... 

Polymer supported reagents, catalysts, protecting groups, and mediators can be used in place of the corresponding small molecule materials (Sherrington, 1991 Sundell and Nasman, 1993). The reactive species is tightly bound to a macromolecular support which immobilizes it. This generally makes toxic, noxious, or corrosive materials much safer. The use of polystyrene sulfonic acid catalyst for the manufacture of methyl r-butyl... 

Polymer-supported esters are widely used in solid-phase peptide synthesis, and extensive information on this specialized protection is reported annually. Some activated esters that have been used as macrolide precursors and some that have been used in peptide synthesis are also described in this chapter the many activated esters that are used in peptide synthesis are discussed elsewhere. A useful list, with references, of many protected amino acids (e.g., -NH2, COOH, and side-chain-protected compounds) has been compiled/ Some general methods for the preparation of esters are provided at the beginning of this chapter conditions that are unique to a protective group are described with that group/ Some esters that have been used as protective groups are included in Reactivity Chart 6. 

FIGURE 3 Schematic representation of a pseudopoly (amino acid) derived from the side chain polymerization of a dipeptide carrying protecting groups X and Y. The wavy line symbolizes a nonamide bond. In this polymer, the amino acid side chains are an integral part of the polymer backbone while the termini have become pendant chains. In the backbone, amide and nonamide bonds strictly alternate. 

An interesting observation was made in regard to the polymeriza-bility of N-acylhydroxyproline derivatives The monomers with the smallest protecting groups such as N-acetyl and N-pivaloylhydroxy-proline gave rise to the polymers with the lowest molecular weights (Table 1). When these monomers were polymerized, the initially... 

FIGURE 6 Molecular structures of poIy(CTTE), poly(CTTH), and poly(CTTP), a homologous series of tyrosine-derived polymers used in a study of the effect of the C-terminus protecting group on the materials properties of the resulting polymers. Cbz" stands for the benzyloxycarbonyl group (47). 

In order to test the influence of the C-terminus protecting groups on the properties of the resulting polymer, the ethyl, hexyl, and palmityl esters of N-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-tyrosyl-L-tyrosine were synthesized and the corresponding polymers (poly(CTTE),... 

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