Unlocking the Potential of Poly(Ortho Ester)s: A General Catalytic Approach to the Synthesis of Surface-Erodible Materials

摘要

Poly(ortho ester)s, POEs, are well established as displaying surface eroding properties and hence present unique opportunities for controlled release and tissue engineering applications. Their development and wide spread investigation has however been severely limited by challenging synthetic requirements via unstable intermediates and is therefore highly irreproducible. Herein, we present the first catalytic method for the synthesis of POEs using air and moisture stable vinyl acetal precursors. The synthesis of a range of POE structures is demonstrated including those that are extremely hard to achieve by other synthetic methodologies. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the application of this chemistry to efficiently install functional groups via ortho ester linkages to an aliphatic polycarbonate.