Scalable Synthesis of Sequence-Defined Oligomers via Photoflow Chemistry

Abstract

The development of practical routes that enable the synthesis of unimolecular non-natural macromolecules on multi-gram scales remains a key challenge in polymer chemistry. Herein, we present a continuous flow setup employing the light-induced chemistry based on photocaged dienes as a controlled ligation system to establish a new platform for scalable monodisperse macromolecular synthesis. 800 mg of sequence-defined linear chains with 8 repeating units were obtained in a sequential protecting group based 2-step process. The current study demonstrates that photoflow synthesis is a viable approach to generate large quantities of monodisperse oligomers.