Easy access to amphiphilic nitrogenous block copolymers via switchable catalysis

A key challenge in polymer synthesis is to develop new methods that enable block copolymers to be prepared from mixed monomer feedstock. The emerging switchable polymerization catalysis can generate block copolymers with well-defined structures and tunable properties from monomer mixtures. However, constrained by the reactivity of monomers and the incompatibility of different polymerization mechanisms, this method is usually confined to oxygenated monomers. In this work, the switchable polymerization was successfully applied to nitrogenous monomers for the first time, achieving the efficient copolymerization of N-substituted N-carboxyanhydrides (NNCAs) with epoxides and cyclic anhydrides. This leads to easy access towards amphiphilic nitrogenous copolymers, such as polyester-b-polypeptoids. Density functional theory calculations demonstrated that the reaction of cyclic anhydrides with the alkoxide terminal is thermodynamically more favorable than that of NNCAs. Characterization, using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography and in situ infrared spectroscopy, has confirmed the well-defined block structure of the obtained copolymers. This switchable polymerization strategy is applicable to a range of monomer mixtures with different oxygenated monomers and NNCAs, providing a highly efficient synthetic route towards nitrogenous block copolymers. Most importantly, the easily accessed amphiphilic polyester-b-polypeptoids demonstrated excellent anti-protein adsorption capabilities and barely any cytotoxicity, showing great potential in the field of biomedicine.