Synthesis and Application of Monodisperse Oligo(Oxyethylene)-Grafted Polystyrene Resins for Solid-Phase Organic Synthesis

In a preliminary investigation by our group, we found that poly­(styrene-oxyethylene) graft copolymers (PS-PEG), for example, TentaGel resins, are advantageous for gel-phase ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. Because of the solution-like environment provided by the PS-PEG resins, good spectral quality of the attached moiety can be achieved, which is useful for nondestructive on-resin analysis. The general drawbacks of such resins are low loading capacities and the intense signal in the spectra resulting from the PEG linker (>50 units). Here, we describe the characterization of solvent-dependent swelling and reaction kinetics on a new type of resin for solid-phase organic synthesis (SPOS) that allows an accurate monitoring by gel-phase NMR without the above disadvantages. A series of polystyrene-oligo­(oxyethylene) graft copolymers containing monodisperse PEG units (n = 2–12) was synthesized. A strong correlation between the linker (PEG) length and the line widths in the ¹³C gel-phase spectra was observed, with a grafted PEG chain of 8 units giving similar results in terms of reactivity and gel-phase NMR monitoring to TentaGel resin. Multistep on-resin reaction sequences were performed to prove the applicability of the resins in solid-phase organic synthesis.