Organic Seminar - Brent Sumerlin

Relying solely on mild ultraviolet or visible irradiation of thiocarbonylthio compounds, a new avenue to polymer-protein conjugates, semi-telechelic polymers, and well-defined ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) block polymers has been developed. This photomediated polymerization approach reaches number-average molecular weights in excess of 8.00 ´ 10⁶ g/mol with degrees of polymerization above 85,000, making these, to our knowledge, the highest molecular weight polymers ever achieved via living polymerization. Ironically, the same chemistry that enables the synthesis of these polymers can also be harnessed to facilitate reversion to monomer (i.e., depolymerization), suggesting programmed polymer design can enable a low-energy approach to polymer life-cycle circularity. The utility of these techniques is further demonstrated in the area of mucin-mimetic systems.