Iron Catalysed Radical Polymerisation by Living Bacteria

Bennett, Mechelle; Gurnani, Pratik; Alexander, Cameron; Hill, Phil; Rawson, Frankie James

Abstract

The ability to harness cellular redox processes for abiotic synthesis might allow the preparation of engineered hybrid living systems. Towards this goal, we describe a new bacteria‐mediated Iron‐catalysed Reversible Deactivation Radical Polymerisation (RDRP), with a range of metal‐chelating agents and monomers that can be used under ambient conditions with a bacterial redox initiation step to generate polymers. Species of bacteria; Cupriavidus metallidurans, Escherichia coli and Clostridium sporogenes were chosen for their redox enzyme systems and evaluated for their ability to induce polymer formation. Parameters including cell and catalyst concentration, initiator species and monomer type were investigated. Water‐soluble synthetic polymers were produced in the presence of the bacteria with full preservation of cell viability. This methodology provides a means by which bacterial redox systems can be exploited to generate ‘unnatural’ polymers in the presence of ‘host’ cells, thus setting up the possibility of making natural‐synthetic hybrid structures and conjugates.

Citation

Bennett, M., Gurnani, P., Alexander, C., Hill, P., & Rawson, F. J. (2020). Iron Catalysed Radical Polymerisation by Living Bacteria. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 59(12), 4750-4755. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201915084

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 23, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 2, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 16, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2020
• Journal: Angewandte Chemie International Edition
• Print ISSN: 1433-7851
• Electronic ISSN: 1521-3773
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 4750-4755
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201915084
• Keywords: General Chemistry; Catalysis
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3688019
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.201915084
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bennett, M., Gurnani, P., Alexander, C., Hill, P. and Rawson, F..J. (2020), Iron Catalysed Radical Polymerisation by Living Bacteria. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Accepted Author Manuscript., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201915084. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.