School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Dec 22;143(50):21177-21188. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c11410. Epub 2021 Dec 13.
Self-immolative polymers are an emerging class of macromolecules with distinct disassembly profiles that set them apart from other general degradable materials. These polymers are programmed to disassemble spontaneously from head to tail, through a domino-like fragmentation, upon response to extremal stimuli. In the time since we first reported this unique type of molecule, several groups around the world have developed new, creative molecular structures that perform analogously to our pioneering polymers. Self-immolative polymers are now widely recognized as an important class of stimuli-responsive materials for a wide range of applications such as signal amplification, biosensing, drug delivery, and materials science. The quinone-methide elimination was shown to be an effective tool to achieve rapid domino-like fragmentation of polymeric molecules. Thus, numerous applications of self-immolative polymers are based on this disassembly chemistry. Although several other fragmentation reactions achieved the function requested for sequential disassembly, we predominantly focused in this Perspective on examples of self-immolative polymers that disassemble through the quinone-methide elimination. Selected examples of self-immolative polymers that disassembled through other chemistries are briefly described. The growing demand for stimuli-responsive degradable materials with novel molecular backbones and enhanced properties guarantees the future interest of the scientific community in this unique class of polymers.
自毁聚合物是一类新兴的高分子，具有独特的解组装谱，与其他一般可降解材料明显不同。这些聚合物经过编程，能够在极端刺激下自发地从头至尾通过类似多米诺骨牌的片段化进行解组装。自从我们首次报道这种独特类型的分子以来，世界各地的几个研究小组已经开发出了新的、有创意的分子结构，它们与我们的开创性聚合物类似。自毁聚合物现在被广泛认为是一类重要的刺激响应材料，可用于广泛的应用，如信号放大、生物传感、药物输送和材料科学。醌-亚甲醚消除已被证明是实现聚合物分子快速类似多米诺骨牌片段化的有效工具。因此，自毁聚合物的许多应用都是基于这种解组装化学。尽管还有其他几种断链反应可以实现顺序断链所需的功能，但在这篇观点文章中，我们主要关注的是通过醌-亚甲醚消除进行解组装的自毁聚合物的例子。简要描述了通过其他化学途径进行解组装的自毁聚合物的一些例子。对具有新颖分子骨架和增强性能的刺激响应性可降解材料的需求不断增长，保证了科学界对这一独特聚合物类别的未来兴趣。
