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Combinatorial Low‐Volume Synthesis of Well‐Defined Polymers by Enzyme Degassing
Author(s) -
Chapman Robert,
Gormley Adam J.,
Stenzel Martina H.,
Stevens Molly M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201600112
Subject(s) - polymer , polymerization , raft , chain transfer , monomer , solvent , chemistry , glucose oxidase , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , combinatorial chemistry , chemical engineering , volume (thermodynamics) , polymer chemistry , radical polymerization , nanotechnology , materials science , organic chemistry , enzyme , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
The synthesis of well‐defined polymers in a low‐volume, combinatorial fashion has long been a goal in polymer chemistry. Here, we report the preparation of a wide range of highly controlled homo and block co‐polymers by Enz‐RAFT (enzyme‐assisted reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer) polymerization in microtiter plates in the open atmosphere. The addition of 1 μ m glucose oxidase (GOx) to water/solvent mixtures enables polymerization reactions to proceed in extremely low volumes (40 μL) and low radical concentrations. This procedure provides excellent control and high conversions across a range of monomer families and molecular weights, thus avoiding the need to purify for screening applications. This simple technique enables combinatorial polymer synthesis in microtiter plates on the benchtop without the need of highly specialized synthesizers and at much lower volumes than is currently possible by any other technique.