Methoxyl-PEG16-alcohol NEW

The chemical name Methoxyl-PEG₁₆-alcohol (also written as mPEG₁₆-OH or CH₃O-PEG₁₆-OH) refers to a specific monodisperse or polydisperse polyethylene glycol (PEG) derivative with the following structure:
CH₃O-(CH₂CH₂O)₁₆-H

Key Chemical Characteristics:

Terminal Groups:

• Methoxyl (CH₃O-): One end is capped with a methyl ether group.

• Alcohol (-OH): The other end has a hydroxyl group.

  PEG Chain Length:

• "PEG₁₆" indicates 16 repeating ethylene oxide units (–CH₂CH₂O–).

• Total atoms in the chain: 16 × (C₂H₄O).

  Molecular Formula:

• C₃₃H₆₈O₁₇

• Calculated as: CH₃O- (C₂H₄O)₁₆-H → C₃₃H₆₈O₁₇

• Exact mass: ~ 724.44 g/mol (monodisperse).

Structure:

CH₃-O-(CH₂-CH₂-O)₁₆-H  

Clarifications:

• "PEG₁₆" vs. "16-mer":
  "PEG₁₆" explicitly means 16 ethylene oxide (EO) units, not 16 total atoms.

• Polydispersity:
  Commercial products may have a range of chain lengths (e.g., PEG₁₄–PEG₁₈), characterized by a polydispersity index (PDI). High-purity grades offer near-monodisperse chains.

• Synonyms:

• mPEG₁₆-OH

  Methyl-PEG₁₆-alcohol

  α-Methoxy-ω-hydroxyhexaethoxy glycol

Common Applications:

Bioconjugation:

• Functionalizing proteins, peptides, or nanoparticles via the reactive –OH group (e.g., creating PEGylated drugs).

  Drug Delivery:

• Improving solubility and pharmacokinetics of therapeutics.

  Crosslinking Agent:

• Used in hydrogels or polymer networks (the –OH group reacts with isocyanates, epoxides, etc.).

  Surface Modification:

• Grafting onto materials to create non-fouling (anti-protein adsorption) surfaces.

Comparison with Earlier Term :

• Methoxyl-PEG₁₆-alcohol is not a surfactant with a C₁₆ alkyl chain.

• Instead, it is a hydrophilic PEG polymer with a defined length (16 EO units), used primarily in biomedical applications.

For industrial uses (e.g., surfactants), compounds like C₁₆H₃₃-(OCH₂CH₂)ₙ-OCH₃ would be labeled as "Methoxy PEG-X Hexadecyl Ether" (where X = EO number).