Microwave-assisted spectrophotometric estimation of polymer-supported functional groups using a universal reagent Original Research Article

A rapid method has been developed for the estimation of polymer-supported functionalities under microwave irradiation. The method involves the use of a novel universal reagent, S-(4,4′-dimethoxytrityl)-3-mercaptopropionic acid (DMPA) for the estimation of polymer-supported hydroxyalkyl, aminoalkyl and mercaptoalkyl functionalities in the presence of triphenylphosphine–bromotrichloromethane (TPP–BTCM) as an oxidation-reduction coupling reagent. The loadings obtained on the supports following the proposed method were found to be comparable with those obtained with the standard, 4,4′-dimethoxytrityl chloride (DMTr-Cl), method. The usefulness of the method was further demonstrated by monitoring the functionalization of polymer supports, suitable for solid-phase peptide and oligonucleotide synthesis.