posted on 2023-12-29, 19:05authored byTian Zeng, Liam A. Ordner, Peng Liu, Maxwell J. Robb
Polymers that release
small molecules in response to mechanical
force are promising for a variety of applications including drug delivery,
catalysis, and sensing. While a number of mechanophores have been
developed for the release of covalently bound payloads, existing strategies
are either limited in cargo scope or, in the case of more general
mechanophore designs, are restricted to the release of one or two
cargo molecules per polymer chain. Herein, we introduce a nonscissile
mechanophore based on a masked 2-furylcarbinol derivative that enables
the preparation of multimechanophore polymers with ultrahigh payload
capacity. We demonstrate that polymers prepared via ring-opening metathesis
polymerization are capable of releasing hundreds of small-molecule
payloads per polymer chain upon ultrasound-induced mechanochemical
activation. This nonscissile masked 2-furylcarbinol mechanophore overcomes
a major challenge in cargo loading capacity associated with previous
2-furylcarbinol mechanophore designs, enabling applications that benefit
from much higher concentrations of delivered cargo.