From Glucose to Polymers: A Continuous Chemoenzymatic Process

Efforts to synthesize degradable polymers from renewable resources are deterred by technical and economic challenges; especially, the conversion of natural building blocks into polymerizable monomers is inefficient, requiring multistep synthesis and chromatographic purification. Herein we report a chemoenzymatic process to address these challenges. An enzymatic reaction system was designed that allows for regioselective functional group transformation, efficiently converting glucose into a polymerizable monomer in quantitative yield, thus removing the need for chromatographic purification. With this key success, we further designed a continuous, three‐step process, which enabled the synthesis of a sugar polymer, sugar poly(orthoester), directly from glucose in high yield (73 % from glucose). This work may provide a proof‐of‐concept in developing technically and economically viable approaches to address the many issues associated with current petroleum‐based polymers. An enzymatic reaction system was designed that allows for regioselective functional group transformation, efficiently converting glucose into a polymerizable monomer without the need for chromatographic purification. A continuous, three‐step process was designed that enables the synthesis of a sugar polymer, sugar poly(orthoester), from glucose in high yield (73 % from glucose).