Multifunctional polymer bearing malonylurea groups for the fabrication of coordination complexes and supramolecular assemblies

Abstract

The development of new polymers for coordination and supramolecular assemblies has emerged as an area of intensive research. The malonylurea-based compounds with five potential binding sites are versatile polyfunctional ligands in coordination and supramolecular chemistries. However, their significant potential in the form of polymer has rarely been explored. Inspired by diallyldimethy1ammonium chloride, a kind of malonylurea-contained monomer diallyl malonylurea (DAMU) was synthesized and used to readily prepare multifunctional polymer polydiallyl malonylurea (PDAMU) by free radical polymerization. The chain structure and composition as well as physicochemical properties of PDAMU were well characterized and investigated. Especially, the PDAMU as building blocks used in coordination and supramolecular chemistries was demonstrated to be able to not only coordinate with silver ions (Ag+) to form complexes (PDAMU-Ag) with high antibacterial activity, but also produce supramolecular assemblies with regular morphology of nanorods via complementary hydrogen bonds with melamine. These results indicated that the PDAMU bearing malonylurea groups can serve as useful platform for fabrication of coordination complexes and supramolecular assemblies, exhibiting great potential in the construction of drug design and molecular receptors, which are expected to expand the methodological scope and application range of malonylurea-contained polymers.