The present investigation reports one of the first examples of synthetic polymers that capable of undergoing reversible conformation transformation and also self-assembled to hierarchical helical amyloid-like fibrils. A new temperature selective melt polycondensation reaction was developed for amino acid monomers L-aspartic acid and L-glutamic acid to produce high molecular weight linear functional polyesters. These new polyesters have hydrogen bonded urethane (or carbamate) units that are in-built in each repeating unit. The polymer chains have adapted expanded chain conformation through β-sheet hydrogen bonding interactions and produced twisted ribbon-like assemblies. These twisted ribbons have subsequently undergone interchain folding for making double helical structures. The double helical fibrils aligned together to produce amyloid-like fibrils of few micrometer in length. Upon chemical deprotection of the pendent urethane units; the resultant cationic functional polyester adapted coil-like conformation and exhibited spherical charged nanoparticles of 200 ± 20 nm in size. Dynamic light scattering and zeta potential measurements revealed that both the charge and size of the spherical structures could be varied by altering the diol segment length in the polymer backbone. The coil-like chains in the charged spherical particles could be reversibly expanded into amyloid-like fibrils via fluorophore chemical substitution using dansyl chloride. The dansyl-substituted polymer exhibited helical fibrils and strong fluorescence. Thus, the L-amino acid based polyesters exhibited complete reversible conformational changes from hierarchical helical amyloid-like fibrils to charged nanoparticles in a single polymer system. These new nonpeptide polyester analogues, their amyloid fibrils, cationic polymer assemblies and fluorescent fibrils are very new based on l-amino acids, which may be useful for a wide range of biomedical applications.

A new dual ester-urethane melt condensation methodology for biological monomers-amino acids was developed to synthesize new classes of thermoplastic polymers under eco-friendly and solvent-free polymerization approach. Naturally abundant L-amino acids were converted into dual functional ester-urethane monomers by tailor-made synthetic approach. Direct polycondensation of these amino acid monomers with commercial diols under melt condition produced high molecular weight poly(ester-urethane)s. The occurrence of the dual ester-urethane process and the structure of the new poly(ester-urethane)s were confirmed by (1)H and (13)C NMR. The new dual ester-urethane condensation approach was demonstrated for variety of amino acids: glycine, β-alanine, L-alanine, L-leucine, L-valine, and L-phenylalanine. MALDI-TOF-MS end group analysis confirmed that the amino acid monomers were thermally stable under the melt polymerization condition. The mechanism of melt process and the kinetics of the polycondensation were studied by model reactions and it was found that the amino acid monomer was very special in the sense that their ester and urethane functionality could be selectively reacted by polymerization temperature or catalyst. The new polymers were self-organized as β-sheet in aqueous or organic solvents and their thermal properties such as glass transition temperature and crystallinity could be readily varied using different l-amino acid monomers or diols in the feed. Thus, the current investigation opens up new platform of research activates for making thermally stable and renewable engineering thermoplastics from natural resource amino acids.

Catalyst and temperature driven melt polycondensation reaction was developed for natural L‐amino acid monomers to produce new classes of poly(ester‐urethane)s. Wide ranges of catalysts from alkali, alkali earth metal, transition metal and lanthanides were developed for the condensation of amino acid monomers with diols to yield poly(ester‐urethane)s. A‐B Diblock and A‐B‐A triblock species were obtained by carefully choosing mono‐ or diols in model reactions. More than two dozens of transition metal and lanthanide catalysts were identified for the polycondensation to yield high molecular weight poly(ester‐urethane)s. Theoretical studies revealed that the carbonyl carbon in ester possessed low electron density compared to the carbonyl carbon in urethane which driven the thermo‐selective polymerization process. Optical purity of the L‐amino acid residues in the melt polycondensation process was investigated using D‐ and L‐isomers and the resultant products were analyzed by chiral‐HPLC and CD spectroscopy. CD analysis revealed that the amino acid based polymers were self‐assembled as β‐sheet and polyproline type II secondary structures. Electron and atomic force microscopic analysis confirmed the formation of helical nano‐fibrous morphology in poly(ester‐urethane)s. The newly developed melt polycondensation process is very efficient and optimized for wide range of catalysts to produce diverse polymer structures from natural L‐amino acids. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 1065–1077

Melt polycondensation approach is developed for new classes of reduction responsive disulfide containing functional polyesters based on l‐cystine amino acid resources under solvent free process. l‐Cystine was converted into multi‐functional ester‐urethane monomer and subjected to thermoselective transesterification at 120 °C with commercial diols in the presence of Ti(OBu)4 to produce polyesters with urethane side chains. The polymers were produced in moderate to high molecular weights and the polymers were found to be thermally stable up to 250 °C. The β‐sheet hydrogen bonding interaction among the side chain urethane unit facilitated the self‐assembly of the polyester into amyloid‐like fibrils. The deprotection of urethane unit into amine functionality modified the polymers into water soluble cationic polyester spherical nanoparticles. The reduction degradation of disulfide bond was studied using DTT as a reducing agent and the high molecular weight polymers chains were found be chopped into low molecular weight oligomers. The cytotoxicity of cationic disulfide nanoparticle was studied in MCF‐7 cells and they were found to be biocompatible and non‐toxic to cells upto 50 μg/mL. The custom designed reduction degradable and highly biocompatible disulfide polyesters from l‐cystine are useful for futuristic biomedical applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 2864–2875