[Durmanstainer]

Hello, people. I have a question for you guys.

In the line of my work, I stumbled upon a challenge, which I can solve in a boring, long and tiresome way, already tested by prior researchers. However, while keeping older ways in mind, I decided to search for new paths. And among other ideas, I have one particularly interesting, but it requires a certain component to exist.

What I need is: a water-soluble linear or branching polymer with controllable length, that would be COMPLETELY degradable by any method, that is not (too) harmful to biomolecules - be it light of certain wavelength, heat (no more than 50C), change in ionic power or pH, adding a specific substance or whatever. And second VERY desirable property it must have - the decay product after degradation MUST either be possible to evaporate, OR it must have MINIMAL intensity of Raman scattering and not interfere with spectroscopy.

So... do any of you have any ideas? Thank you in advance!

[Arkcon]

So... do any of you have any ideas? Thank you in advance!

Magic.


Sorry to be flippant, but whenever there are more than three disparate conditions for a process, the options become very slim.  Whenever something has to completely dissolve or disperse, well, I suspect you haven't thought it all the way through.

Clearly, you want some sort of "disappearing" cuvette for some sort of optical procedure, somewhere in the IR, but your proposed methods are too weak for anything that has structure, and your proposed standard for success is too ambiguous, and maybe too strict as well.

What sort of structural strength do you expect from this polymer when its made?  What is is supposed to be capable of resisting -- water, solvents?  How much light, laser strength or dim light bulb?  Temperature of 50 C-- for how long, seconds or hours?  How much ionic strength or pH exposure-- a few drops or total immersion for days?

Not for nothing, but your post is almost (not quite but almost) like the ones that I dump into General Discussion, wherein a high school student wants us to formulate a paint that makes a structure bulletproof, or provide that prison bar eating acid they saw on TV.  I'm saying that you have to dial back terms like all-caps COMPLETELY, unless you're writing sci-fi.