As single‐use electronics become more prevalent in our society, a shift towards devices with alternative disposal fates will be required to address rising levels of electronic and plastic waste. Adopting transient electronics is one solution for inadvertent litter of future single‐use electronics as they are designed to automatically break down in environmental conditions after their intended use. However, the selection of appropriate source materials to make these transient devices is vital to ensure environmental compatibility. This mini‐review aims to highlight recent advancements in bioderived polymers that can be used as substrates or encapsulants, the largest weight percentage in a device, in transient electronics. The chemical and biological degradation of these bioderived polymers is also discussed to present potential non‐toxic byproducts and factors affecting degradation rates. Lastly, the potential outlook of transient electronics in biomedical, environmental, and consumer applications are proposed to demonstrate the wide scope of opportunities to be explored. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Background: Peptide bonds are among the fundamental building blocks of life, polymerizing amino acids to form proteins that make up the structural components of living cells and regulate biochemical processes. The detection of glycine by NASA in comet Wild 2 in 2009 suggests the possibility of the formation of biomolecules in extraterrestrial environments through the interstellar medium. Detected in the dense molecular cloud Sagittarius B2, acetamide is the largest molecule containing a peptide bond and is hypothesized to be the precursor to all amino acids; as such, viability of its formation is of important biological relevance. Methods: Under a proposed mechanism of ammonia and ketene reactants, which have also been detected in dense molecular clouds in the ISM, the reaction pathway for the formation of acetamide was modelled using quantum chemical calculations in Gaussian16, using Austin-Frisch-Petersson functional with dispersion density functional theory at a 6-31G(d) basis set level of theory to optimize geometries and determine the thermodynamic properties for the reaction. Stability of the reactants, transition states, and products were examined to establish a reasonable mechanism. Conclusion: Product formation of acetamide was found to be highly exergonic and exothermic with a low energy barrier, suggesting a mechanism that is viable in the extreme density and temperature conditions found in ISM.

N-Substituted glycines (peptoids) are a class of peptidomimetic molecules used as materials for health, environmental, and drug delivery applications. Automated solid-phase synthesis is the most widely used approach for preparing polypeptoids, with a range of published protocols and modifications for selected synthetic targets. Simultaneously, emerging solutionphase syntheses are being leveraged to overcome limitations in solid-phase synthesis and access high-molecular weight polypeptoids. This Perspective aims to outline strategies for the optimization of both solid-and solution-phase synthesis, provide technical considerations for robotic synthesizers, and offer an outlook on advances in synthetic methodologies. The solid-phase synthesis sections explore steps for protocol optimization, accessing complex side chains, and adaptation to robotic synthesizers; the sections on solution-phase synthesis cover the selection of initiators, side chain compatibility, and strategies for controlling polymerization efficiency and scale. This text acts as a "field guide" for researchers aiming to leverage the flexibility and adaptability of peptoids in their research.

Sequence‐defined polymers can be programmed to self‐assemble into precise nanostructures for applications in biosensing, drug delivery, optics, and molecular computation. Inspired by the natural self‐assembly processes present in biological protein and DNA systems, sets of molecular design rules have emerged across materials classes as instructions to build a variety of tunable structures. This review highlights recent advances in self‐assembled sequence‐defined and sequence‐specific polymers across peptides, peptoids, DNA, and non‐biological synthetic materials, with a focus on synthesis, assembly processes and overall structure. Specifically, these self‐assembled structures are free‐floating, as such constructs can potentially serve as a platform for the aforementioned applications. Emphasis is placed on the molecular design of polymers that self‐assemble into zero‐dimensional, one‐dimensional, two‐dimensional, or three‐dimensional nanostructures. With the development of automated syntheses and increasing control over self‐assembly, future work may focus on emerging classes of compatible hybrid materials with exciting directions toward new architectures and applications.