Thioester functional polymers

Inspired by the uniqueness and ubiquity of thioesters in nature, much attention has been paid to thioester functionalized materials, yielding applications ranging from responsive polymers to bioconjugates and (bio)degradable polymers. This review focuses on various applications of thioesters in polymer science, covering the synthesis and polymerisation of thioester containing monomers, thioester generation via polymerization processes or the presence of thioesters in chain ends, such as initiators or chain transfer agents. Examples of post-polymerization modifications with various compounds (e.g. thiols, azides, amines and cysteine containing peptides) to enable modification via pathways such as ligation, amidation or exchange reactions are also presented.