Structural Characterization of Glycoconjugate Polystyrene in Aqueous Solution

Maltopentaose-carrying polystyrene was synthesized by the homopolymerization of vinylbenzyl maltopentaose amide. Resulted amphiphilc polymacromonomer was dissolved in 0.1 M urea aqueous solution, and its structure was characterized by small-angle X-ray scattering and molecular modeling. Maltopentaose-carrying polystyrene polymacromonomer was found to be represented by a molecular bottlebrush, composed of a large helix of polystyrene backbone and maltopentaose brushes. The molecular bottlebrush seems to be distributed randomly or many even be broken once or twice in segments with no apparent intersegmental spatial correlation. A large helix of polystyrene backbone is formed by a random seque…