High‐Molar‐Mass, First and Second Generation L ‐Lysine Dendronized Polymethacrylates

The first (PG1) and second (PG2) generation dendronized polymethacrylates with L‐lysine based dendrons have been synthesized, and their conformation has been investigated. The chiral dendrons can be synthesized efficiently on a multi‐gram scale from L‐lysine by a solution peptide coupling method, and the over‐all yields for the first (MG1) and second (MG2) generation macromonomers are 77 and 75%, respectively. High molar masses (1 to 2 million) of PG1 and PG2 are achieved by conventional radical polymerization of the corresponding macromonomers. Characterization with optical rotation, circular dichroism, and UV measurements showed that, in contrast to PG1, PG2 adopts a single‐handed helical conformation in solution, which is stable in different polar solvents and also over a broad temperature range. Interestingly, the stable helical conformation remained in aqueous solution after deprotection of the terminal amines, by which the mass and steric hindrance of the dendrons reduced significantly. magnified image