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Updated: Nov 21, 2025

High-throughput Synthesis of Carbohydrates and Functionalization of Polyanhydride Nanoparticles
Published on: July 6, 2012
From Glucose to Polymers: A Continuous Chemoenzymatic Process
Sampa Maiti1, Saikat Manna2, Nicholas Banahene1
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Science of Advanced Materials, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, 48859, USA.
Abstract:
Efforts to synthesize degradable polymers from renewable resources are deterred by technical and economic challenges; especially, the conversion of natural building blocks into polymerizable monomers is inefficient, requiring multistep synthesis and chromatographic purification. Herein we report a chemoenzymatic process to address these challenges. An enzymatic reaction system was designed that allows for regioselective functional group transformation, efficiently converting glucose into a polymerizable monomer in quantitative yield, thus removing the need for chromatographic purification. With this key success, we further designed a continuous, three-step process, which enabled the synthesis of a sugar polymer, sugar poly(orthoester), directly from glucose in high yield (73 % from glucose). This work may provide a proof-of-concept in developing technically and economically viable approaches to address the many issues associated with current petroleum-based polymers.
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