New Chain-Growth Living Polymerization Method

Significance

Chain-growth living polymerization represents a highly valuable means toward synthesizing polymers with low PDIs while simultaneously allowing for the construction of well-defined block architectures. The authors of this paper present a new means of polymer synthesis dubbed ‘chain-growth condensation polymerization’ (CGCP), in which the electron-donating ability of a deprotonated aniline is used to deactivate the monomeric species. After condensation between the anilinic anion with an ester, the resulting amide linkage becomes significantly less electron-donating into the aromatic system, thereby activating the attached ester and allowing for a chain-growth living polymerization from that site.