Synthesis of glycopolymers via click reactions

This mini-review describes recent work in the field of glycopolymer synthesis, with a focus on methods that have employed "click chemistry" and controlled polymerization methodology. A variety of carbohydrates with clickable groups such as azide, alkyne, and thiol moieties provide new routes to glycopolymers. Several studies use copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reactions to synthesize glycomonomers or to incorporate carbohydrates into a clickable polymeric backbone. Alternatively, there are many thiol based click reactions which provide metal-free synthesis, which are discussed in details.