TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, B.V.K.J. A1 - Fechler, N. A1 - Falkenhagen, Jana A1 - Lutz, J.-F. T1 - Controlled folding of synthetic polymer chains through the formation of positionable covalent bridges N2 - Covalent bridges play a crucial role in the folding process of sequence-defined biopolymers. This feature, however, has not been recreated in synthetic polymers because, apart from some simple regular arrangements (such as block co-polymers), these macromolecules generally do not exhibit a controlled primary structure—that is, it is difficult to predetermine precisely the sequence of their monomers. Herein, we introduce a versatile strategy for preparing foldable linear polymer chains. Well-defined polymers were synthesized by the atom transfer radical polymerization of styrene. The controlled addition of discrete amounts of protected maleimide at precise times during the synthesis enabled the formation of polystyrene chains that contained positionable reactive alkyne functions. Intramolecular reactions between these functions subsequently led to the formation of different types of covalently folded polymer chains. For example, tadpole (P-shaped), pseudocyclic (Q-shaped), bicyclic (8-shaped) and knotted (α-shaped) macromolecular origamis were prepared in a relatively straightforward manner. KW - Copolymerization KW - Chain folding KW - SEC KW - NMR KW - FT-IR KW - LAC KW - MALDI PY - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.964 SN - 1755-4330 SN - 1755-4349 VL - 3 SP - 234 EP - 238 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London, UK AN - OPUS4-23888 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -