ATRPases: Enzymes as Catalysts for Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

摘要

Enzymes have proven to be useful catalysts in the toolbox of synthetic chemists because they work under mild conditions both in water and in organic solvents and display high regio-, stereo- and substrate selectivity. Nature's catalysts have been extensively studied as catalysts for polymerization reactions such as polycondensations, ring-opening polymerizations, and free radical polymerizations.[1,2] However, enzymatic activity in controlled radical polymerizations, such as atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), was unknown until we discovered that the heme enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) catalyzes polymerizations under the reductive conditions of activators regenerated by electron transfer (ARGET) ATRP.[3] We refer to enzymes that possess this novel activity as ATRPases.