Sequence-Defined Polysulfates via S(VI)-Fluoride Exchange Iterative Exponential Growth (SuFEx IEG)

Area of Science:

• Polymer Chemistry
• Organic Synthesis
• Click Chemistry

Background:

• The S(VI)-fluoride exchange (SuFEx) reaction is a versatile click chemistry tool.
• Developing methods for synthesizing uniform polymers with controlled sequences is crucial for advanced materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the SuFEx iterative exponential growth (SuFEx IEG) method for synthesizing uniform polymers and block copolymers.
• To demonstrate the capability of SuFEx IEG for sequence-defined polymer synthesis and information encoding.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the SuFEx reaction's reactivity, modularity, and orthogonality.
• Employed on-demand, orthogonal activation of SuFEx-inactive groups into SuFEx-active species.
• Synthesized uniform polysulfates, block copolymers, and triblock copolymers up to 21 kDa.

Main Results:

• Successfully synthesized uniform linear and cyclic polymers, and block copolymers without molecular weight distribution.
• Demonstrated the encoding of 16-bit information into sequence-defined polysulfates.
• Achieved precise construction of polymers and block copolymers across a broad molecular weight range.

Conclusions:

• SuFEx IEG is a robust and versatile method for precise polymer synthesis.
• The method enables the creation of uniform linear, cyclic, and sequence-defined polymers.
• SuFEx IEG facilitates the development of advanced polymer architectures for diverse applications.