From prebiotic macromolecules to synthetic polypeptides: a new, efficient synthesis of α‐amino acid N‐carboxyanhydrides (NCAs)

While polypeptide materials present important application potentialities, the expense of amino acid N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) monomers strongly limits their applications. We present here a new, promising synthetic route to NCA through N-carbamoylamino acid nitrosation by gaseous NOx(1 < x < 2) in the solid-gas phase. This very efficient reaction (which was originally developed in a prebiotic context) works in the absence of solvent and with minimum waste, and presents interesting economic features. Some mechanistic investigations aimed at the optimisation and scale-up of this reaction in the solid-gas phase are presented.