Synthesis of glyco-materials via controlled/living free radical polymerization

Abstract

The thesis reports the synthesis of glyco-materials by utilizing controlled/living free radical polymerization. The latter is a powerful synthetic tool for building complex polymer architectures. Various glycomonomers namely, 1,2:3,4-Di-O-isopropylidene-6-O-acryloyl-alpha-D-galactopyranose (AIpGP), 2-(2 ,3 ,4 ,6 -tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-galactosyloxy)ethyl methacrylate (AcGalEMA) and 2-methacrylamido glucopyranose (MAG) were initially synthesized via different chemical pathways and this is followed by employing reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization (NMP) to achieve the desired amphiphilic diblock glycopolymers. To obtain carbohydrate functionalized materials, the amphiphilic glycopolymers were either self-assembled into stable micelles or simply synthesized in a one pot ab initio emulsion polymerization via RAFT to achieve glyco-latex particles. The bioactivity of the glyco-materials was examined by their specific multivalent interactions with lectins.