Precision Glycopolymers and Bioconjugation Strategies

Glycopolymers, which are synthetic macromolecules with pendant carbohydrate moieties, are crucially important in many biologically active processes such as immune response, intercellular recognition and pathogen identification [1-6]. They are therefore becoming more attractive for polymer chemists because of their potential to be useful in biomimetic applications and human therapeutics [7, 8]. 

Triisopropylsilyl (TlPS)-protected PMI monomer was polymerised at the beginning of the reaction. The second functional monomer - triethylsilyl (TES)-protected PMI - was then added after full conversion of TIPS-PMI and further chain growth with styrene. Finally, trimethylsilyl (TMS)-protected PMI was added close to the end of the polymer chain because of their potential sensitivity to the reaction conditions. The precise chain positioning of all three reactive MI was confirmed by study of the kinetics of copolymerisation. 

Functionalisable Spacer unit building block building block 

Wojcik, F. Beceren-Braun, J. Dernedde and L. Hartmann, Biomacromolecules, 2012,13,1845. 2012, American Chemical 

React time 4 h React time 4 h React, time 7 h Total con 94% Total con 92% Total con 94% 

---