Oxygen tolerant, photoinduced controlled radical polymerization approach for the synthesis of giant amphiphiles

Abstract

Amphiphilic protein–polymer conjugates form hybrid nanostructures with a broad range of potential applications. Herein, we expand the scope of amphiphilic protein–polymer bioconjugates via an oxygen tolerant, photoinduced RDRP method. A range of hydrophobic acrylic, methacrylic and acrylamide-based monomers are comprehensively screened to identify optimum reaction conditions that lead to quantitative biomacroinitiator consumption. By judiciously varying a number of components (e.g. monomer loading, catalyst concentration, pH, co-solvent, salt content), well-defined protein–polymer conjugates bearing different polymer moieties were obtained and their intrinsic properties were expressed through both their self-assembled architectures and esterase-like catalytic activity.