Volume 45, Issue 8 2300690
Research Article

Embedding Thiols into Choline Phosphate Polymer Zwitterions

Deborah Snyder

Deborah Snyder

Polymer Science & Engineering Department, Conte Center for Polymer Research University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003 USA

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Todd Emrick

Corresponding Author

Todd Emrick

Polymer Science & Engineering Department, Conte Center for Polymer Research University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003 USA

E-mail: [email protected]

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First published: 11 January 2024

Abstract

The compositional scope of polymer zwitterions has grown significantly in recent years and now offers designer synthetic materials that are broadly applicable across numerous areas, including supracolloidal structures, electronic materials interfaces, and macromolecular therapeutics. Among recent developments in polymer zwitterion syntheses are those that allow insertion of reactive functionality directly into the zwitterionic moiety, yielding new monomer and polymer structures that hold potential for maximizing the impact of zwitterions on the macromolecular materials chemistry field. This manuscript describes the preparation of zwitterionic choline phosphate (CP) methacrylates containing either aromatic or aliphatic thiols embedded directly into the zwitterionic moiety. The polymerization of these functional CP methacrylates by reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer methodology yields polymeric zwitterionic thiols containing protected thiol functionality in the zwitterionic units. After polymerization, the protected thiols are liberated to yield thiol-rich polymer zwitterions which serve as precursors to subsequent reactions that produce polymer networks as well as polymer-protein bioconjugates.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

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