Transition metals for the synthesis of glycopolymers and glycopolypeptides

Abstract

Glycopolymers and glycopolypeptides are an important class of molecules, which can self-assemble to various interesting biohybrid materials. It is envisaged that the glycans impart good immunological response, and the aliphatic or polypeptide backbone can give tertiary structure for the resulting glycopolymers. The major bottleneck in the synthesis of glycopolymers or glycopolypeptides is the access to suitable building blocks and polymerization methods. This review describes methods that have recently been explored for the successful synthesis of many useful glycomonomers that could be polymerized to afford glycopolymers and/or glycopolypeptides.