Assembling Complex Macromolecules and Self-Organizations of Biological Relevance with Cu(I)-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne, Thio-Bromo, and TERMINI Double "Click" Reactions

In 2022, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Bertozzi, Meldal, and Sharpless "for the development of click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry". Since 2001, when the concept of click chemistry was advanced by Sharpless laboratory, synthetic chemists started to envision click reactions as the preferred choice of synthetic methodology employed to create new functions. This brief perspective will summarize research performed in our laboratories with the classic Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne click (CuAAC) reaction elaborated by Meldal and Sharpless, with the thio-bromo click (TBC) and with the less-used, irreversible TERminator Multifunctional INItiator (TERMINI) dual click (TBC) reactions, the last two elaborated in our laboratory. These click reactions will be used to assemble, by accelerated modular-orthogonal methodologies, complex macromolecules and self-organizations of biological relevance. Self-assembling amphiphilic Janus dendrimers and Janus glycodendrimers together with their biological membrane mimics known as dendrimersomes and glycodendrimersomes as well as simple methodologies to assemble macromolecules with perfect and complex architecture such as dendrimers from commercial monomers and building blocks will be discussed. This perspective is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Professor Bogdan C. Simionescu, the son of my (VP) Ph.D. mentor, Professor Cristofor I. Simionescu, who as his father, took both science and science administration in his hands, and dedicated his life to handling them in a tandem way, to their best.

Regioselective post-functionalization of isotactic polypropylene by amination in the presence of N-hydroxyphthalimide

Previously, we developed amination modification of polyethylene by metal-free organocatalytic reaction.

Facile functionalization of isotactic polypropylene via click chemistry

Alkynyl functionalized iPP, with 1–4 mol% comonomer incorporation, can be efficiently synthesized and conveniently converted into various functional iPPs and graft copolymers via alkynyl/N₃ reaction.

The emerging applications of click chemistry reactions in the modification of industrial polymers

Click chemistry reactions have been applied to the modification of major industrial polymers by analysing the synthetic approaches and the resulting material properties.

Investigation of the preparation and superior properties of novel propylene-based elastic HMAs

The propylene-based elastic HMAs with higher adhesive and elasticity had excellent ability of weather resistance, which alleviated the interface delamination caused by the different thermal shrinkage between the steel and plastic interface.

Efficient synthesis of diverse well-defined functional polypropylenes with high molecular weights and high functional group contents via thiol–halogen click chemistry

Originating from the reactive halogenated iPPs, diverse side-group and graft functionalized polypropylenes were synthesized via thiol–halogen nucleophilic substitution click chemistry.

Optimising the enzyme response of a porous silicon photonic crystal via the modular design of enzyme sensitive polymers

The incorporation of a versatile and tuneable polymer–peptide network into the pores of porous silicon photonic crystals improves the selectivity of porous silicon optical biosensors to detect certain types of matrix metalloproteinase enzymes.