Hydrolases Part I: Enzyme Mechanism, Selectivity and Control in the Synthesis of Well-Defined Polymers - Enzymatic Polymerisation - page 55

5 Polyamides ..................................................................................... 69

6 Polythioesters .................................................................................. 71

7 Conclusions .................................................................................... 73

References .......................................................................................... 74

Abbreviations

BHB Bis(hydroxymethyl)butyric acid

CALB Candida antarctica Lipase B

CL ε -Caprolactone

DMP 2,4-Dimethyl-pentan-3-ol

DO p -Dioxanone

DXO 1,5-Dioxepan-2-one

HEA hydroxyethyl acrylate

HEMA hydroxyethyl methacrylate

LCCC Liquid chromatography under critical conditions

M n Number-average molecular weight

3MP 3-Mercaptopropionic acid

11MU 11-Mercaptoundecanoic acid

OC 2-Oxo-12-crown-4

pCL Poly( ε -caprolactone)

PDL ω -Pentadecanolactone

PDI Polydispersity index

ROP Ring-opening polymerization

SEC Size exclusion chromatography

TMC Trimethylene carbonate

VL δ -Valerolactone

1 Introduction

Well-defined (co)polyesters and polyester-based architectures can nowadays be ac-
cessed by a wide variety of organometallic [ 1 - 4 ] and organocatalytic [ 5 ] catalysts,
and applications in advanced materials for biomedical applications and nanotech-
nology are foreseen in the near future [ 6 , 7 ] . Also, enzymes are perfectly equipped
to convert monomers into polymers with high enantio-, regio-, and chemoselectivity
[ 8 , 9 ]. More specifically, in the last decade lipases have been shown to be outstand-
ing catalysts for polymerization reactions as a result of their broad substrate scope,
high activity, and excellent stability in a broad range of reaction media. Lipases
are powerful catalysts for the preparation of polyesters, polycarbonates, and even
polythioesters and polyamides. Moreover, a variety of different polymer architec-
tures such as (block) copolymers and graft copolymers have been prepared using
chemoenzymatic approaches [ 10 ].