Combining polymers with the functionality of proteins : new concepts for atom transfer radical polymerization, nanoreactors and damage self-reporting materials

Proteins are macromols. with a great diversity of functions. By combining these biomols. with polymers, exciting opportunities for new concepts in polymer sciences arise. This highlight exemplifies the aforementioned with current research results of our group. We review our discovery that the proteins horseradish peroxidase and Hb possess ATRPase activity, i.e. they catalyze atom transfer radical polymns. Moreover, a permeabilization method for polymersomes is presented, where the photo-reaction of an α-hydroxyalkylphenone with block copolymer vesicles yields enzyme-contg. nanoreactors. A further intriguing possibility to obtain functional nanoreactors is to enclose a polymn. catalyst into the thermosome, a protein cage from the family of chaperonins. Last but not least, fluorescent proteins are discussed as mechanoresponsive mol. sensors that report microdamages within fiber-reinforced composite materials. [on SciFinder(R)]