Degradation by transesterification on demand: RNA-inspired degradation motifs in synthetic poly(phospho)esters

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frederik Wurm
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers ; Polymer Materials
• Term: from 2015 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267144673

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The project expanded the field of degradable polymers using phosphate and phosphonate units as the breaking points. Due to the reduced funding as initially anticipated, we selected several key tasks from both work packages to successfully underline the concepts as outlined in the project proposal. Both ring-opening polymerization and metathesis polymerization was utilized to show that the pendant hydroxylethyl-functionality in PPEs and copolymers follows the RNA-inspired degradation pathway – the main research question of the project. In total, 4 scientific publications with this main focus have been published in high-impact journals of the field, which are already well-accepted by the audience with several citations. We further expanded the PPE-degradation to surfaces and were able to present the first PPE-based polymer brushes in the working period, which will be published soon. The results obtained in the present project have established olefin metathesis as an efficient and robust process for the production of polyphosphoric acid esters and amides. Degradable phosphorus-containing polymers are now available in a greater variety and can be investigated for a wide range of applications (flame protection, drug delivery, adhesives).

Publications

• RNA-Inspired and Accelerated Degradation of Polylactide in Seawater. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(40), 16673-16681.
  Rheinberger, Timo; Wolfs, Jonas; Paneth, Agata; Gojzewski, Hubert; Paneth, Piotr & Wurm, Frederik R.
  
• RNA-inspired intramolecular transesterification accelerates the hydrolysis of polyethylene-like polyphosphoesters. Chemical Science, 12(48), 16054-16064.
  Haider, Tobias P.; Suraeva, Oksana; Lieberwirth, Ingo; Paneth, Piotr & Wurm, Frederik R.
  
• Terpyridine-Induced Folding of Anisotropic Polyphosphoester Platelets. ACS Polymers Au, 1(2), 123-130.
  Haider, Tobias P.; Suraeva, Oksana; Lieberwirth, Ingo & Wurm, Frederik R.
  
• Environment-friendly transesterification to seawater-degradable polymers expanded: Computational construction guide to breaking points. Chemosphere, 308, 136381.
  Pokora, Mateusz; Rheinberger, Timo; Wurm, Frederik R.; Paneth, Agata & Paneth, Piotr
  
• Polyester Brush Coatings for Circularity: Grafting, Degradation, and Repeated Growth. Macromolecules, 56(21), 8856-8865.
  Brió, Pérez Maria; Hempenius, Mark A.; de Beer, Sissi & Wurm, Frederik R.