Synthesis of polymers with on-demand sequence structures via dually switchable and interconvertible polymerizations

• Published in: Nature communications 2018-07, Vol.9 (1), p.2577-9, Article 2577
• Main Authors: Zhang, Ze, Zeng, Tian-You, Xia, Lei, Hong, Chun-Yan, Wu, De-Cheng, You, Ye-Zi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/638/455; 639/638/455/941; Chemical synthesis; Demand; External stimuli; Humanities and Social Sciences; Monomers; multidisciplinary; Polymerization; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Stimuli
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05000-2

The synthesis of polymers with on-demand sequence structures is very important not only for academic researchers but also for industry. However, despite the existing polymerization techniques, it is still difficult to achieve copolymer chains with on-demand sequence structures. Here we report a dually switchable and controlled interconvertible polymerization system; in this system, two distinct orthogonal polymerizations can be selectively switched ON/OFF independent of each other and they can be interconverted promptly and quantitatively according to external stimuli. Thus, the external stimuli can manipulate the insertion of distinct monomers into the resulting copolymer chains temporally, spatially, and orthogonally, allowing the on-demand precise arrangement of sequence structures in the resulting polymers. This dually switchable and interconvertible polymerization system provides a powerful tool for synthesizing materials that are not accessible by other polymerization methods. The synthesis of polymers with on-demand sequence structures is difficult but highly desirable. Here the authors show a dual switchable and controlled interconvertible polymerization involving two orthogonal polymerizations that are switched ON/OFF independent of each other with an external stimulus.