A phenacrylate scaffold for tunable thiol activation and release.

A thiol-selective 2-methyl-3-phenacrylate scaffold with spatio-temporal control over delivery of a cargo is reported. The half-lives of decomposition could be tuned from 30 min to 1 day and the scaffold's utility in thiol-inducible fluorophore release in cell-free as well as within cells is demonstrated.