Gelating polypeptide matrices based on the difunctional N ‐carboxyanhydride diaminopimelic acid cross‐linker

This work reports the synthesis of a new difunctional N ‐carboxyanhydride (NCA) monomer, namely diaminopimelic acid (DAP), and its use in the one‐pot preparation of an organogelating copolypeptide. The organogel is formed in situ through ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of DAP NCA from helical poly(ε‐carbobenzyloxy‐L‐lysine) (PZLL) blocks in a mixture of dimethylformamide/chloroform. Gelation occurs by immobilizing the solvent through core crosslinking and is stabilized through physical intermolecular conformations. After removal of the carbobenzyloxy (cbz or Z) protecting groups, the network remains intact in exceedingly high aqueous concentrations (99.5%). FTIR is used to characterize the secondary structure, revealing the conformational arrangements that contributed to these stabilized gel networks with their relative mechanical properties determined via real‐time rheological assays. DAP core crosslink of the random coil forming polypeptoid poly(sarcosine) (PSar) is also resulting in networks but is devoid of any stabilized physical interactions, thus yielding significantly weaker gels as a result. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019