Issue 43, 2021

Aqueous ROPISA of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides: polypeptide block secondary structure controls nanoparticle shape anisotropy

Abstract

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is an efficient one-step process to obtain nanomaterials. In this work, aqueous ring-opening polymerization induced self-assembly (ROPISA) of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) affords controllable well-defined nanoassemblies. ROPISA with the PEG5 kDa-NH2 macroinitiator and either the benzyl-L-glutamate NCA (BLGNCA) or L-leucine NCA (LeuNCA) monomer yields amphiphilic block copolymers, with different polypeptide molar masses, which spontaneously form nanostructures. In contrast to the previous PISA process where the hydrophobic to hydrophilic ratio was the main parameter defining nanomaterial morphology, the secondary structure of the polypeptides is the main driving force to stabilize the anisotropic rod-like nanostructures with this ROPISA process.

Graphical abstract: Aqueous ROPISA of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides: polypeptide block secondary structure controls nanoparticle shape anisotropy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jul 2021
Accepted
16 Sep 2021
First published
21 Sep 2021

Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 6242-6251

Author version available

Aqueous ROPISA of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides: polypeptide block secondary structure controls nanoparticle shape anisotropy

C. Grazon, P. Salas-Ambrosio, S. Antoine, E. Ibarboure, O. Sandre, A. J. Clulow, B. J. Boyd, M. W. Grinstaff, S. Lecommandoux and C. Bonduelle, Polym. Chem., 2021, 12, 6242 DOI: 10.1039/D1PY00995H

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