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Japanese researchers have come up with a novel way to make polyesters, a class of polymers. The approach involves an artificial molecule composed of cyclodextrins that guides and catalyzes the polymerization reaction, reports Laura in Chemistry World.
Cyclodextrins are sugar molecules bound together in a ring. They have a variety of applications, including the role as catalysts of reactions. Because polymerization processes currently used by the chemical industry are not highly efficient and environmentally friendly, Akira, at Osaka University, Japan, and colleagues wanted to create a synthetic polymerase that was more efficient and didn’t require using harmful organic solvents.
They decided to look into cyclodextrins as a polymerization catalyst for making polyesters. But, much to their surprise, they found cyclodextrins act as catalysts as well as chaperones. When two cyclodextrin molecules are put together, one catalyzes the lengthening of the polymer chain while the other holds the chain in place.
In creating this novel complex of cyclodextrin, Howes says that Harada’s team realized they “inadvertently copied a working system from nature — DNA polymerase.” DNA polymerases have similar setups as does the novel cyclodextrin complex.
The cyclodextrin complex created by Akira & colleagues helps the polymerization by attaching building blocks onto the growing chain, increasing the polymer’s molecular weight and slowly pulling the growing polymer from the active site.
Howes writes:
‘Harada’s latest work really does have some fairly profound implications for both conventional polymerisation and DNA propagation,’ says Peter Cragg, an expert on using macrocycles as artificial enzymes at the University of Brighton, UK. He describes the system as ‘highly reminiscent’ of DNA polymerase enzymes. ‘We believe that this process is applicable for any polymer synthesis,’ says Harada, who now hopes to test this claim in the lab.
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