Combining Orthogonal Chain‐End Deprotections and Thiol–Maleimide Michael Coupling: Engineering Discrete Oligomers by an Iterative Growth Strategy

Abstract

Orthogonal maleimide and thiol deprotections were combined with thiol-maleimide coupling to synthesize discrete oligomers/macromolecules on a gram scale with molecular weights up to 27.4 kDa (128mer, 7.9 g) using an iterative exponential growth strategy with a degree of polymerization (DP) of 2ⁿ -1. Using the same chemistry, a "readable" sequence-defined oligomer and a discrete cyclic topology were also created. Furthermore, uniform dendrons were fabricated using sequential growth (DP=2ⁿ -1) or double exponential dendrimer growth approaches (DP=22n -1) with significantly accelerated growth rates. A versatile, efficient, and metal-free method for construction of discrete oligomers with tailored structures and a high growth rate would greatly facilitate research into the structure-property relationships of sophisticated polymeric materials.