A synthetic approach to polyamides containing the tyrosine-leucine lin
kage is presented. The DPPA coupling technique was utilized to synthes
ize the monomers. A chloroform solution of yrosylleucyliminohexamethyl
eneiminoleucyltyrosine, monomer I, and triethylamine was reacted with
chloroform solutions of adipoyl and sebacoyl chlorides, to give polyme
rs with molecular weight, M(w)/M(n) of 14200/7200 and 20800/8100, resp
ectively. Interfacial polymerization of monomer I yielded a fibrous cr
oss-linked material. This was found to be a poly(amide ester) as indic
ated by IR analysis. In another reaction, the monomer, beta-alanyltyro
sylleucyl-beta-alanine (monomer II) in DMF was polymerized using DPPA
and triethylamine to give a polyamide with M(w)/M(n) of 16500/5700.