Hydrophobic, Hydrophilic, and Amphiphilic Polyglycocarbonates with Linear and Macrocyclic Architectures from Bicyclic Glycocarbonates Derived from CO2 and Glucoside

Two bicyclic glycocarbonates were synthesized in five steps from α-methyl-d-glucoside without resorting to phosgene or to its derivatives for the first time. The 4- and 6-positions of glucose were modified to introduce a six-membered carbonate ring, using CO as the carbonylating reagent; the 2- and 3-positions of the same glucoside substrate were first transformed into either methyl or triethylene glycol monomethyl ether groups to protect these positions from undesirable reactions and also to impart hydrophobicity in the first case and hydrophilicity in the second. The polymerization behavior of these bicyclic glycocarbonates was then investigated under different conditions. On the one hand, through ring-opening polymerization of the above monomers, linear polyglycocarbonate homopolymers and diblock copolymers were obtained initiated by p-methylbenzyl alcohol using 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD) as catalyst; on the other hand, macrocyclic polyglycocarbonate homopolymers and diblock copolymers were grown using 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) which served as zwitterionic initiator. The various architectures derived were all thoroughly characterized by NMR, GPC, and MALDI-tof and shown to exhibit the expected structure. Finally, the self-assembly of linear and macrocyclic amphiphilic copolyglycocarbonates in water was investigated and characterized by cryo-TEM.