Polymer syntheis from amino acids

Abstract

This article deals with design and synthesis of functional polymers having amino acid moieties in the main and side chains. The first half overviews peptides, polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes, polysulfides, along with dendrimers consisting of amino acid repeating units in the polymer main chain synthesized by ring-opening polymerization, polycondensation, and polyaddition. The second half overviews polymers having amino acid and peptide moieties in the side chain mainly synthesized by radical polymerization of the corresponding vinyl monomers, some of which show unique properties concerning specific rotation, solubility, glass transition behavior, higher order structure, and drug-releasing function.