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Updated: May 18, 2026

Synthesis of Programmable Main-chain Liquid-crystalline Elastomers Using a Two-stage Thiol-acrylate Reaction
Published on: January 19, 2016
Facile and general preparation of multifunctional main-chain cationic polymers through application of robust,
Animesh Saha1, Swati De, Mihaiela C Stuparu
1Department of Materials, ETH-Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Poly(ß-hydroxyl amine)s are prepared from readily available small molecular building blocks at ambient conditions. These macromolecules can be transformed into main-chain cationic polymers upon quaternization of the backbone amine units. The modular and mild nature of the synthesis allows for incorporation of multiple (2-4) chemically distinct reactive sites in the polymer chain. Modifications of the reactive sites afford multifunctional polymers with tunable properties. The orthogonal nature of the involved chemistries sets the synthetic pathway free from any functional group protection/deprotection requirements. This feature also allows for alteration of the modification sequence.
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