Synthesis and bioconjugation of first alkynylated poly(dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole)s

First synthesis of an alkynylated dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole (DTP) monomer was developed, which allows electrochemical polymerization on platinum and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. The obtained DTP-based polymer (pDTP) was successfully post-modified with redox active and biological entities via bio-orthogonal 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions and [2 + 2]-cycloaddition. In vitro experiments with A549-human lung carcinoma cells evidenced the general biocompatibility of the compositionally tuneable pDTP-coated electrodes.