Embedding Thiols into Choline Phosphate Polymer Zwitterions

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 (RAFT) methodology yields polymeric zwitterionic thiols (PZTs) containing protected thiol functionality in the zwitterionic units. After polymerization, the protected thiols were liberated to yield thiol‐rich polymer zwitterions which served as precursors to subsequent reactions that produced polymer networks as well as polymer‐protein bioconjugates.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved