Simultaneous Orthogonal Chemoligations on Multiresponsive Microgels

We describe the straightforward synthesis of “clickable” multiresponsive microgels containing both carboxylic acid groups and azidohydrin or terminal alkyne groups, via a one-pot multistage polymerization approach. The clickable functional groups on the microgels were confirmed by FTIR. Additionally, we simultaneously performed “click” and acid−amine coupling reactions on microgels with fluorescent dyes containing complementary functional groups. Epifluorescence microscopy was employed to confirm the coupling of those dyes to the microgels. The orthogonality of the click reaction to other functional groups such as hydroxyl, carboxylic acid, and amino groups was confirmed, suggesting the potential utility of such microgels in applications where multifunctional colloidal particles are required.