Plants to Polyelectrolytes: Theophylline Polymers and their Microsphere Synthesis

To extend fossil oil supplies, sustainable feed stocks for the production of useful reagents and polymers should be harnessed. In this regard, chemicals derived from plants are excellent candidates. While the vast majority of plant sources used for polymer science only contain CxHyOz, alkaloids such as caffeine, nicotine, and theophylline possess nitrogen functionality that can provide new functions for bio-derived polymers and their synthesis. In this context, we exploited the chemistry of theophylline, a natural product found in chocolate and tea, to create a cationic poly(theophylline) in a straightforward fashion for the first time. We demonstrate how this new polymer can be synthesized and used for the creation of narrowly disperse cationic microspheres.