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Updated: Sep 23, 2025

Microwave-assisted Functionalization of Polyethylene glycol and On-resin Peptides for Use in Chain Polymerizations and Hydrogel Formation
Published on: October 29, 2013
Recent Advances in Post-polymerization Modifications on Polypeptides: Synthesis and Applications
Yue Li1, Rong Chang1, Yong-Xiang Chen1
1Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry and Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Polypeptides, a kind of very promising biomaterial, have shown a wide range of applications due to their excellent biocompatibility, easy accessibility, and structural variability. To synthesize polypeptides with desired functions, post-polymerization modification (PPM) plays an important role in introducing novel chemical structure on their side-chains. The key to PPM strategy is to develop highly selective and efficient reactions that can couple the additional functional moieties with pre-installed side-chain functionalities on polypeptides. In this minireview, classic PPM approaches and their recent progresses are summarized and categorized into five sections, including various reactions on unsaturated alkyl, oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulfur-containing and other special functional groups. In addition, we also highlight the applications of the resultant structure-diversified polypeptides in the field of biomaterial.
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