Optically verified polymer synthesis

A template-free method of synthesizing a polymer chain of a pre-determined sequence of polymers, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) immobilizing a polymer chain seed molecule on a solid support;
• b) optionally verifying immobilization of the seed molecule by fluorescent detection means;
• c) contacting the immobilized seed molecule with a monomer unit comprising a polymer building block component of interest, wherein the polymer building block component comprises a fluorescent-labelled, removable or cleavable protecting group selected from the group consisting of a boronate analog, a silyl group or a silyl analog, under conditions and with reagents suitable for the addition of the monomer unit/polymer building block to the immobilized seed molecule;
• d) removing excess monomer units and reagents not added to the immobilized seed molecule;
• e) verifying the addition of the monomer unit/polymer building block to the seed molecule by detecting the presence or absence of the fluorescent-labeled protecting group of the polymer building block of the monomer unit, wherein the detection of the fluorescent label indicates the addition of the monomer unit/polymer building block to the seed molecule, thereby extending the seed molecule polymer chain by one polymer building block of interest;
• f) removing the fluorescent-labelled protecting group of the polymer building block of the monomer unit added to the seed molecule;
• and
• repeating steps c) through f) to synthesize the polymer chain.