Figure 1. Monomers (A) and polymers (B) examined in this work.
The copolymers are sequence-random. Because the β-lactams are racemic, the polymers are heterochiral and stereorandom. The C-terminal imide unit is derived from the β-lactam(s) used in the polymerization reaction. Thus, for each copolymer, R’ and R” could correspond to either of the β-lactam precursors. All polymers are cationic and were isolated as trifluoroacetate salts. Nomenclature, characterization, and synthesis details are presented in Supporting Information (Table S1).