Microspheres Consisting of Optically Active Helical Substituted Polyacetylenes: Preparation via Suspension Polymerization and Their Chiral Recognition/Release Properties

K A. Enantioselective Separation of Amino Acids Using Chiral Polystyrene Microspheres Synthesized by a Post-Polymer Modification Approach

The enantioselective separation of a racemic mixture of amino acids was achieved by chiral amino acid-modified polystyrene (PS) that was developed by a post-polymer modification approach. Styrene was polymerized using the reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique and further post-polymer modification was applied by Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction with chiral N-phthaloyl-l-leucine acid chloride to obtain the protected PS-l-Leu. The chiral PS (protected PS-l-Leu) was assembled into microspheres using a surfactant and was used for carrying out the enantioselective separation of amino acid racemic mixtures by enantioselective adsorption followed by a simple filtration process. Compared to as-precipitated chiral PS (protected PS-l-Leu) powder, the protected PS-l-Leu microspheres exhibited a better enantioselective separation efficiency (ee %). Furthermore, the protected PS-l-Leu was deprotected to obtain the amine-functionalized deprotected PS-l-Leu chiral PS, which was also assembled into microspheres and used for carrying out enantioselective separation. Deprotected PS-l-Leu-functionalized chiral PS microspheres could achieve up to 81.6 ee % for the enantioselective separation of a racemic mixture of leucine. This is one of the first reports of the synthesis of amino acid-modified chiral PS microspheres and their application to the simple filtration-based enantioselective separation of native amino acids from their racemic mixtures.

The construction of photoresponsive polymer particles with supramolecular helicity from achiral monomers by helix-sense-selective polymerization

Optically active azobenzene-containing polymer particles successfully prepared from achiral monomers for the first time by helix-sense-selective dispersion polymerization, also known as asymmetric helix-chirogenic polymerization.

Optically active microspheres constructed by helical substituted polyacetylene and used for adsorption of organic compounds in aqueous systems

This article reports optically active microspheres consisting of chiral helical substituted polyacetylene and β-cyclodextrin-derivative (β-CD-A). The microspheres showed remarkable adsorption toward various organic compounds in water. To prepare the microspheres, an acetylenic-derived helical macro-monomer was synthesized and then underwent aqueous suspension copolymerization with octadecyl acrylate and butyl acrylate by using azobis(isobutyronitrile) as initiator and β-CD-A simultaneously as comonomer and cross-linking agent. The helical macro-monomer chains enabled the microspheres to exhibit desirable enantio-differentiating adsorption capacity toward chiral compounds respectively dissolved in organic solvent, dispersed in water, and dissolved in water. The saturated absorbency toward (R)-(+)- and (S)-(-)-1-phenylethylamine was 29 and 12 mg · g(-1), respectively. The microspheres also showed large oil absorbency (e.g., 22 g · g(-1) CCl4) and a large adsorption toward methyl red (as a model for organic dyes) dispersed in water. The presence of β-CD-A moieties improved the adsorption performance of the microspheres. The present optically active microspheres open a new approach for preparing adsorbents particularly chiral adsorbents with potentials for wastewater treatment.

Prospects of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals loaded microparticles prepared by double emulsion technique for controlled delivery

Several methods and techniques are potentially useful for the preparation of microparticles in the field of controlled drug delivery. The type and the size of the microparticles, the entrapment, release characteristics and stability of drug in microparticles in the formulations are dependent on the method used. One of the most common methods of preparing microparticles is the single emulsion technique. Poorly soluble, lipophilic drugs are successfully retained within the microparticles prepared by this method. However, the encapsulation of highly water soluble compounds including protein and peptides presents formidable challenges to the researchers. The successful encapsulation of such compounds requires high drug loading in the microparticles, prevention of protein and peptide degradation by the encapsulation method involved and predictable release, both rate and extent, of the drug compound from the microparticles. The above mentioned problems can be overcome by using the double emulsion technique, alternatively called as multiple emulsion technique. Aiming to achieve this various techniques have been examined to prepare stable formulations utilizing w/o/w, s/o/w, w/o/o, and s/o/o type double emulsion methods. This article reviews the current state of the art in double emulsion based technologies for the preparation of microparticles including the investigation of various classes of substances that are pharmaceutically and biopharmaceutically active.