Recent developments in atom transfer radical polymerization initiators for development of polymer-protein bioconjugates

One of the major challenges in modern synthetic polymer chemistry is to synthesize end defined polymers of different end functionality with predetermined uniform molecular weight. End functionalized polymers/copolymers basically in block and grafting form are having several potential applications in biomedical areas in the form of surface modifications, coatings, adhesives, and in order to increase the biocompatibility of polymeric blends. Among the existing controlled radical polymerization (CRP) methods for synthesis of these functional polymers, the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is one of the powerful techniques. The functional groups in these polymers can be easily introduced at the chain ends through functionalized ATRP initiators. A number of ATRP initiators have been developed in polymer science to develop defined polymer-protein bioconjugates. This critical review basically focuses on different types of ATRP initiators and their mechanisms used in the synthesis of polymer-protein bioconjugates.