New paper in the frame of the ALPO Interreg project

The S2MOs laboratory is involved in the ALPO Interreg project that aims at producing building blocks for polymer preparation starting from the micro-algae biomass. The role of the MS lab is to characterize the secondary metabolites present in the biomass that could be part of the final material, without interfering with the polymerization reaction. This work is performed in close collaboration with Prof jean-Hugues Renault at URCA (Reims) that is expert in the chemical profiling using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR @ URCA and MS @ UMONS nicely complement to get valuable data regarding bioactive molecules. Gaela Cauchie is the PhD candidate that is working on this peculiar aspect on the joint direction of Jean-Hugues Renault and Pascal Gerbaux.

The role of the MS lab is also to participate to the characterization of the targeted final products such as polymers by mass spectrometry methods.

In the present paper, just accepted for publication in Green Chemistry, and entitled “ Synthesis of novel Levulinic Acid based Poly(amine-co-ester)s”, four novel biobased monomers bearing a tertiary amine in their backbone have been synthesized from the sustainable methyl levulinate and amino-alcohol/amino-esters derived from natural amino-acids. Homopolymers and copolymers have then been successfully prepared and fully characterized. These families of biodegradable polyesters have been reported to be efficient carriers for gene delivery.

The present work nicely associates the S2MOs lab with the researchers of the “Unité de Catalyse et Chimie du Solide” headed by prof Philippe Zinck at the University of Lille.