A water-soluble polycarbonate with dimethylamino pendant groups prepared by enzyme-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization.

A water-soluble polycarbonate with dimethylamino pendant groups, poly(2-dimethylaminotrimethylene carbonate) (PDMATC), is synthesized and characterized. First, the six-membered carbonate monomer, 2-dimethylaminotrimethylene carbonate (DMATC), is prepared via the cyclization reaction of 2-(dimethylamino)propane-1,3-diol with triphosgene in the presence of triethylamine. Although the attempted ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of DMATC with Sn(Oct)(2) as a catalyst fails, the ROP of DMATC is successfully carried out with Novozym-435 as a catalyst to give water-soluble aliphatic polycarbonate PDMATC with low cytotoxicity and good degradability.