Chun-Chih Chen, Basker Rajagopal, Xuan-yu Liu
Dec 5, 2013
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Influential Citations
18
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Journal
Amino Acids
Abstract
A mild method for effectively removing the fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) group using sodium azide was developed. Without base, sodium azide completely deprotected Nα-Fmoc-amino acids in hours. The solvent-dependent conditions were carefully studied and then optimized by screening different sodium azide amounts and reaction temperatures. A variety of Fmoc-protected amino acids containing residues masked with different protecting groups were efficiently and selectively deprotected by the optimized reaction. Finally, a biologically significant hexapeptide, angiotensin IV, was successfully synthesized by solid phase peptide synthesis using the developed sodium azide method for all Fmoc removals. The base-free condition provides a complement method for Fmoc deprotection in peptide chemistry and modern organic synthesis.Graphical Abstract