Precision Sequence Control in Bioinspired Peptoid Polymers

Abstract

’Recent advances in solid-phase organic synthesis are shrinking the gap between biopolymers and traditional polymers. It is now possible to synthesize synthetic polymers with exact control over main chain length and monomer sequence, which is leading to a new class of information-rich materials. Peptoids are a particularly promising bio-inspired polymer platform because of their highly efficient synthesis and ready availability of starting materials. Hundreds of chemically diverse side chains can be introduced from simple building blocks, allowing their properties to be finely tuned. The peptoid platform allows the systematic investigation of new materials that are intermediate between proteins and bulk polymers, in both their structure and their properties. Here we review recent examples of peptoid polymers where the polymer properties are the direct result of the specific monomer sequence.