title: Combinatorial Low-Volume Synthesis of Well-Defined Polymers by Enzyme Degassing.
abstract: The synthesis of well-defined polymers in a low-volume, combinatorial fashion has long been a goal in polymer chemistry. Here, we report the preparation of a wide range of highly controlled homo and block co-polymers by Enz-RAFT (enzyme-assisted reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer) polymerization in microtiter plates in the open atmosphere. The addition of 1 μm glucose oxidase (GOx) to water/solvent mixtures enables polymerization reactions to proceed in extremely low volumes (40 μL) and low radical concentrations. This procedure provides excellent control and high conversions across a range of monomer families and molecular weights, thus avoiding the need to purify for screening applications. This simple technique enables combinatorial polymer synthesis in microtiter plates on the benchtop without the need of highly specialized synthesizers and at much lower volumes than is currently possible by any other technique.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, SW72AZ, London, UK.|Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD), Department of Chemistry, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2333-1473
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Adam J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gormley
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD), Department of Chemistry, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Martina H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6433-4419
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Stenzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, SW72AZ, London, UK. m.stevens@imperial.ac.uk.|Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden. m.stevens@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Molly M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7335-266X
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Stevens
keywords: controlled radical polymerization; glucose oxidase; high-throughput screening