Accelerated polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides catalyzed by crown ether

Yingchun Xia; Ziyuan Song; Zhengzhong Tan; Tianrui Xue; Shiqi Wei; Lingyang Zhu; Yingfeng Yang; Hailin Fu; Yunjiang Jiang; Yao Lin; Yanbing Lu; Andrew L. Ferguson; Jianjun Cheng

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20724-w

Nature Communications (Feb 2021)

Accelerated polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides catalyzed by crown ether

Yingchun Xia,
Ziyuan Song,
Zhengzhong Tan,
Tianrui Xue,
Shiqi Wei,
Lingyang Zhu,
Yingfeng Yang,
Hailin Fu,
Yunjiang Jiang,
Yao Lin,
Yanbing Lu,
Andrew L. Ferguson,
Jianjun Cheng

Affiliations

Yingchun Xia: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ziyuan Song: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Zhengzhong Tan: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Tianrui Xue: Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Shiqi Wei: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lingyang Zhu: NMR Laboratory, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yingfeng Yang: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hailin Fu: Department of Chemistry and Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut
Yunjiang Jiang: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yao Lin: Department of Chemistry and Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut
Yanbing Lu: Institute of Polymer Science, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Hunan University
Andrew L. Ferguson: Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
Jianjun Cheng: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20724-w
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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The recent advances in accelerated polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) enrich the toolbox to prepare well-defined polypeptide materials. Here the authors use crown ethers to catalyze the polymerization of NCA initiated by conventional primary amine initiators in solvents with low polarity and low hydrogen-bonding ability.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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