Multicomponent Reactions in Polymer Chemistry

Isocyanide based multicomponent reactions (IMCRs) offer a powerful means of synthesis of highly complex molecules, with high atom economy, high efficiency, and mild reaction conditions. The most well-known IMCRs, the Passerini 3-component reaction (3CR) and the Ugi 4-component reaction (4CR), allow for the synthesis of diversely substituted ester- and/or amide- containing macromolecules with highly tuneable polymer architectures, which are difficult to obtain by other means. The Passerini 3CR (i.e. involving an aldehyde, a dicarboxylic acid, and an isocyanide) will be the focus of this project, in step-growth polymerization reaction towards polyester-amides (PEAs). PEAs constitute a family of biodegradable polymers with easily tuneable properties like hydrophilic/hydrophobic ratio and crystallinity. The use of a fluorinated protic solvent, hexafluoro-isopropanol (HFIP) will be explored. HFIP is known to be a good solvent for polyester-amide polymers, possesses strong hydrogen bond donating properties and has low nucleophilicity.

List of Publication:
1. Y. Liu, X. Liu, M. Wu, P. Ji, H. Lv, L. Deng, Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 2019, 121, 233-238.