Sequence-Controlled Polymers with Furan-Protected Maleimide as a Latent Monomer

Yuxuan Ji, Liuqiao Zhang, Xue Gu, Wei Zhang, Nianchen Zhou, Zhengbiao Zhang ^*（张正彪）, Xiulin Zhu

State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

Angew.Chem.Int.Ed.2017,56,2328–2333

Herein, a novel methodology for preparing sequence-controlled polymers is illustrated by using a latent monomer, furan protected maleimide (FMI). At 110°C, FMI is deprotected by retro Diels–Alder (rDA) reaction, and the released MI is immediately involved in the cross-polymerization with styrene (St) to deliver heterosegments. At 40°C the rDA reaction does not proceed, therefore homo-poly(styrene) segments are produced. By implementing programmable temperature changes during polymerization of St and FMI, “living” polymers with tailored a sequence are created. A ternary copolymerization produces complex sequences as designed. Alkynyl-functionalized FMI, used as a latent monomer, leads to the desirable placement of functional groups along the polymer chain. This latent-monomer-based strategy opens a new avenue for fabricating sequence-controlled polymers.

链接：http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201610305/abstract