Thiol-Ene Step-Growth as a Versatile Route to Functional Polymers.

Area of Science:

• Polymer Chemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• The thiol-ene reaction is a versatile click chemistry method.
• Developing functional and redox-tunable polymers is crucial for advanced materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a new application of the thiol-ene reaction for creating functional, redox-tunable polymers.
• To showcase the versatility of this polymerization approach with various monomers.

Main Methods:

• Polymerization of divinyl ether monomers with triethylene glycol dithiol.
• Polymerization of dithioerythritol with triethylene glycol divinyl ether.
• Oxidation of resulting thioether polymers to sulfoxides and sulfones.

Main Results:

• Successfully synthesized polymers with carbonate or phosphocholine backbones.
• Created polymers with pendant diols by varying monomer combinations.
• Demonstrated selective and quantitative oxidation of thioether linkages to sulfoxides/sulfones.

Conclusions:

• The thiol-ene reaction is a broad and effective method for synthesizing novel redox-active polymers.
• This approach allows for the incorporation of diverse and dense functional groups into polymer structures.
• The resulting polymers exhibit tunable redox properties based on oxidation state.