Greener fluorous chemistry: Convenient preparation of new types of ‘CF3-rich’ secondary alkyl mesylates and their use for the synthesis of azides, amines, imidazoles and imidazolium salts

Synthesis and characterization of perfluoro-tert-butyl semifluorinated amphiphilic polymers and their potential application in hydrophobic drug delivery

Semifluorinated polymer surfactants, composed of a monomethyl poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) hydrophilic head group and either 1, 2, or 3 perfluoro-tert-butyl (PFtB) groups as the fluorophilic tail, were synthesized, and their aqueous self-assemblies were investigated as a potential design for theranostic nanoparticles. Polymers with three PFtB groups (PFtB_TRI) solely formed stable, spherical micelles, approximately 12 nm in size. These PFtB_TRI surfactants demonstrate similar characteristics with those of polymers with linear perfluorocarbon tails, despite large differences in tail structure. For example, PFtB polymer solutions stably emulsified 20 v/v% sevoflurane with perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) as a stabilizer. However, these PFtB polymers have the additional potential to serve as F-MRI contrast agents. PFtB_TRI micelles gave one narrow ¹⁹F-NMR signal in D₂O, with T₁ and T₂ parameters of approximately 500 and 100 ms, respectively. ¹⁹F-MR images of PFtB polymer solutions at 1 mM gave intense signal at 4.7 T without sensitizers or selective excitation sequences. These preliminary data demonstrate the potential of PFtB polymers as a basic design, which can be further modified to serve as dual drug-delivery and imaging vehicles.

Avoiding steric congestion in dendrimer growth through proportionate branching: a twist on da Vinci's rule of tree branching

Making defect-free macromolecules is a challenging issue in chemical synthesis. This challenge is especially pronounced in dendrimer synthesis where exponential growth quickly leads to steric congestion. To overcome this difficulty, proportionate branching in dendrimer growth is proposed. In proportionate branching, both the number and the length of branches increase exponentially but in opposite directions to mimic tree growth. The effectiveness of this strategy is demonstrated through the synthesis of a fluorocarbon dendron containing 243 chemically identical fluorine atoms with a MW of 9082 Da. Monodispersity is confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and small-angle X-ray scattering. Growing different parts proportionately, as nature does, could be a general strategy to achieve defect-free synthesis of macromolecules.