Recent Advances in Sequence‐Controlled Ring‐Opening Copolymerizations of Monomer Mixtures

作者：Xiaoqian Wang, Ziyu Huo, Xiaoyu Xie, Narasimhamurthy Shanaiah, Rong Tong · 发表于：Chemistry - An Asian Journal · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1002/asia.202201147 · 被引用次数：34 · 研究领域：biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties、Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis、Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Transforming renewable resources into functional and degradable polymers is driven by the ever-increasing demand to replace unsustainable polyolefins. However, the utility of many degradable homopolymers remains limited due to their inferior properties compared to commodity polyolefins. Therefore, the synthesis of sequence-defined copolymers from one-pot monomer mixtures is not only conceptually appealing in chemistry, but also economically attractive by maximizing materials usage and improving polymers' performances. Among many polymerization strategies, ring-opening (co)polymerization of cyclic monomers enables efficient access to degradable polymers with high control on molecular weights and molecular weight distributions. Herein, we highlight recent advances in achieving one-pot, sequence-controlled polymerizations of cyclic monomer mixtures using a single catalytic system that combines multiple catalytic cycles. The scopes of cyclic monomers, catalysts, and polymerization mechanisms are presented for this type of sequence-controlled ring-opening copolymerization.