Acrylate-Scavenging Beads Enable High-Throughput Purification of Copolymer Libraries

Abstract

High-throughput polymer science provides new opportunities to accelerate materials discovery. Acrylate copolymerization provides rapid access to diverse polymer libraries but requires equally rapid, parallel purification to remove unreacted monomers. Here, we report low-cost thiol-functionalized acrylate-scavenging beads (Beads-SH), prepared in two steps from a commercial ion-exchange resin, that efficiently remove residual acrylates through thiol-Michael addition. The beads achieved near-quantitative removal of diverse small-molecule acrylates within 12 h and remained effective in both organic solvents and water. Size-restricted access to the reactive sites within the beads minimized polymer adsorption and side reactions, with no measurable changes in polymer composition, molar mass, or dispersity. As a proof of concept, Beads-SH were used in a microplate format to purify a 72-member library of amphiphilic acrylate copolymers and evaluate polymer-mediated modulation of enzyme activity. This inexpensive, practical, and accessible strategy enables rapid purification of polyacrylate libraries for high-throughput materials discovery.