Polymer‐Bound Thiol Groups on Poly(2‐oxazoline)s

Abstract

Abstract A new 2‐oxazoline monomer with a protected thiol group, 2‐[2‐(4‐methoxybenzylsulfanyl)ethyl]‐2‐oxazoline, MOB‐SOx , was synthesized from commercially available compounds. MOB‐SOx and 2‐ethyl‐2‐oxazoline (EtOx) were simultaneously polymerized yielding well defined copolymers with narrow molar mass distributions and target polymer chain length. The copolymerization was initiated by N ‐methyl‐2‐methyl‐2‐oxazolinium triflate ( MeOxOTf ). After quantitative deprotection, poly(2‐oxazoline) with pendant thiol groups was obtained. The thiol groups were quantitatively added to the double bond of N ‐phenyl‐acrylamide ( PhA ) and benzylmaleimide ( BzM ). Graft copolymers were obtained by reaction of those SH containing polymers with poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline)s bearing acrylamide ( PMeOx 10 A ) and maleimide ( PMeOx 10 M ) as terminal reactive groups. magnified image