Enzymatic polymerisation in supercritical carbon dioxide

Final Activity Report Summary - POLENZCO2 (Enzymatic polymerisation in supercritical carbon dioxide)

We describe the combination of enzymatic polymerisation and controlled free radical polymerisation in supercritical carbon dioxide. This combination facilitates the preparation of a range of block and graft copolymers, some of which cannot easily be obtained by conventional polymer synthesis. Biocatalysis in polymer science provides significant new opportunities and will open up a very broad range of new polymeric materials. We have presented the state-of-the-art concerning the synthesis of block and graft copolymer structures using dual / heterofunctional initiators, allowing the combination of mechanistically different polymerisation techniques in scCO2. In particular we have highlighted the use of enzymes for the production of polyesters coupled with free radical polymerisation techniques such as ATRP and RAFT. The combination of these techniques with scCO2 is attractive because of the elimination of the need for conventional solvents.

Perhaps more importantly though, we have shown that scCO2 offers far more than just an environmentally-friendly solvent alternative, but rather that many synthetic processes work better in this solvent. Indeed, the simultaneous copolymerisation involving enzymatic catalysis presented here has, up till now, only worked successfully in scCO2. We believe that these strategies offer new opportunities in the design and application of functional polymeric materials.

Final Activity Report Summary - POLENZCO2 (Enzymatic polymerisation in supercritical carbon dioxide)

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