PC Azido-PEG3-NHS carbonate ester | CAS 1802907-96-5

PC Azido-PEG3-NHS carbonate ester is a PEG-based azide-containing NHS carbonate click chemistry reagent designed for efficient biomolecule labeling and subsequent bioorthogonal conjugation. As an NHS carbonate ester, it targets primary amines on proteins and peptides to install a short, flexible PEG spacer bearing an azide handle. The azide functionality makes it compatible with strain-promoted or copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition workflows commonly used in chemical biology, probe development, and materials functionalization, where stable amide-linked PEG spacing improves conjugation accessibility and downstream coupling efficiency.

1. Protein Labeling Workflows

PC Azido-PEG3-NHS carbonate ester is widely used to introduce an azide handle onto amine-rich biomolecules such as antibodies, antibody fragments, enzymes, and carrier proteins. Researchers rely on the NHS carbonate reactivity to generate site-accessible conjugates for subsequent click coupling to fluorescent dyes, affinity tags, or functional small molecules, enabling modular probe assembly without requiring extensive protein engineering. The PEG3 spacer helps maintain labeling flexibility and reduces steric constraints, which is particularly valuable when preparing multicomponent conjugates for imaging, assay development, or platform screening.

2. Fluorophore And Imaging Probes

PC Azido-PEG3-NHS carbonate ester supports the construction of azide-functional imaging reagents by first installing the azide onto a targeting or scaffold biomolecule and then performing click conjugation with alkyne-bearing reporters. This two-step approach is frequently adopted in molecular imaging and diagnostic reagent development to rapidly swap fluorophores, quenchers, or brightness-optimized dyes while keeping the biorecognition component constant. The resulting PEG-linked azide conjugates are commonly used to generate fluorescent tracers, microscopy probes, and labeling standards for flow cytometry and imaging workflows where consistent linker spacing improves reagent behavior.

3. Surface and Biomaterial Functionalization

PC Azido-PEG3-NHS carbonate ester is used in biomaterials science to functionalize amine-containing surfaces and polymers, creating azide-bearing interfaces that can be patterned or assembled through click chemistry. Laboratories apply the reagent to coat or modify materials such as hydrogel networks, polymer brushes, and derivatized substrates to enable subsequent coupling with alkyne-functional crosslinkers, ligands, or bioactive motifs. The PEG3 linker contributes to improved surface accessibility of the azide group, supporting more uniform downstream attachment and facilitating reproducible fabrication of click-assembled materials for research and industrial R&D.

4. Multivalent Conjugate Building

PC Azido-PEG3-NHS carbonate ester is particularly useful for generating multivalent constructs where controlled installation of azide groups enables sequential or orthogonal coupling strategies. Chemical biology groups often use the NHS carbonate step to prepare azide-functional scaffolds, then connect multiple alkyne-bearing components such as targeting ligands, imaging moieties, or affinity handles to build higher-order conjugates. This modular design supports rapid iteration in reagent development pipelines, including the preparation of libraries of labeled biomolecules and standardized conjugation intermediates for comparative studies in probe optimization and assay development.