Investigating templating within Polymer-Scaffolded Dynamic Combinatorial Libraries

Polymer-Scaffolded Dynamic Combinatorial Libraries (PS-DCLs) have been prepared in aqueous solution by the reversible conjugation of two different acylhydrazide residues onto aldehyde-functionalized dimethylacrylamide-based polymer scaffolds. PS-DCLs have been shown by 1H NMR spectroscopic analysis to adapt their composition in response to addition of three macromolecular template species, namely poly(sodium-4-styrenesulfonate), bovine serum albumin and bovine trypsin. Compositional changes within PS-DCLs in response to template addition may be rationalized in terms of multivalent interactions between members of the PS-DCL and templates. A systematic evaluation of how properties of the polymer scaffold, including molecular weight and density of aldehyde functionalities, affect the behaviour of resultant PS-DCLs is detailed. Increasing the molecular weight of the polymer scaffold has been shown to induce a linear decrease in the amplification of the preferred residue upon template addition. A linear relationship between the molar weight percentage of the aldehyde functionalized monomer and the extent of amplification of the preferred residue upon template addition has also been demonstrated.