A new strategy to synthesize bottlebrushes with a helical polyglutamate backbone via N-carboxyanhydride polymerization and RAFT

Polyglutamate bottlebrushes with poly(oligo(ethylene glycol)acrylate) as side chains were successfully prepared for the first time by combination of N-carboxyanhydride polymerization and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. This work has provided a metal-free polymerization strategy and can be applicable to synthesize well-defined polypeptide bottlebrushes for bio-application purposes.