Polymer synthesis articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Semiconducting polymers are usually prepared by transition metal mediated coupling reactions that cause problems for sustainability and biological applications. Here the authors synthesise fused electron deficient polymers that are air stable and have high electron affinities, via metal free aldol polymerisation reactions.

    • Ada Onwubiko
    • , Wan Yue
    •  & Iain McCulloch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving sequence control in polymers is limited by the relative monomer reactivity and thus often statistically random copolymers are obtained. Here the authors show sequence control in radical polymerizations by immobilising the monomer on a porous coordination polymer and subsequent polymerization with a second free monomer.

    • Shuto Mochizuki
    • , Naoki Ogiwara
    •  & Takashi Uemura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Block copolymers that form nanodomains and are used in nanolithography usually do not form nanopatterns with multiple shapes. Here the authors report a block copolymer that allows for UV- induced cleavage of one arm and demonstrate the transformation of the cylindrical to the lamellar nanodomain.

    • Chungryong Choi
    • , Jichoel Park
    •  & Jin Kon Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polymersomes have become a powerful tool in drug delivery and synthetic biology, but their use can be restricted by a lack of versatile methods for shape control. Here the authors demonstrate access to a range of non-spherical polymersome morphologies by exploiting hydrophobic directional aromatic perylene interactions within the membrane structure.

    • Chin Ken Wong
    • , Alexander F. Mason
    •  & Pall Thordarson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Linear α-olefins are important bulk chemicals annually produced in megaton scale. Here, the authors report a trimetallic catalyst system for the synthesis of 1-butene and a broad range of α-olefins and achieve control over chain length by tuning the reaction rates of the nickel and yttrium catalysts.

    • Andreas Gollwitzer
    • , Thomas Dietel
    •  & Rhett Kempe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Barbier reaction, a widely utilized reaction for carbon–carbon bond formation, has played important roles in modern organic chemistry. Here, the authors show a one-pot Barbier polyaddition reaction of monomers containing an organic halide and a benzoyl group to form a series of phenylmethanol group containing polymers.

    • Xiao-Li Sun
    • , Dong-Ming Liu
    •  & Wen-Ming Wan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Digital information can be stored in monomer sequences of non-natural macromolecules, but only short chains can be read. Here the authors show long multi-byte digital polymers sequenced in a moderate resolution mass spectrometer. Full sequence coverage can be attained without pre-analysis digestion or the help from sequence databases.

    • Abdelaziz Al Ouahabi
    • , Jean-Arthur Amalian
    •  & Jean-François Lutz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polymeric phases of nitrogen are promising as environmentally-friendly, high energy-density materials, but are inherently unstable. Here, the authors report the synthesis and stabilization of polymeric nitrogen in its cubic gauche phase under near-ambient conditions, via plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.

    • El Mostafa Benchafia
    • , Zhenhua Yao
    •  & Zafar Iqbal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Producing well-defined polymer compositions and structures facilitates their use in many different applications. Here the authors show the synthesis of well-defined asymmetric double-brushes by a one-pot concurrent atom transfer radical polymerization and Cu-catalyzed Click reaction.

    • Binbin Xu
    • , Chun Feng
    •  & Xiaoyu Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fluorinated alkenes have very poor reactivity in copolymerizations with non-fluorinated polar monomers. Here the authors show silver-catalyzed decarboxylative radical fluorination of poly(acrylic acid) with Selectfluor in water at room temperature to form poly(vinyl fluoride-co-acrylic acid) copolymers.

    • Yucheng Dong
    • , Zhentao Wang
    •  & Chaozhong Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fluorinated poly(aryl thioethers), unlike their poly(aryl ethers) counterparts, have received little attention despite excellent physical properties displayed by many polysulfides. Here the authors show a highly efficient route to fluorinated poly(aryl thioethers) via an organocatalyzed nucleophilic aromatic substitution of silyl-protected dithiols.

    • Nathaniel H. Park
    • , Gabriel dos Passos Gomes
    •  & James L. Hedrick

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The continued search of high-performance semiconductors for organic electronics calls for smart molecular designs. Here, Yinget al. review the recent development of synthesizing regioregular narrow bandgap conjugated polymers and the effect of regioregularity on transistor and photovoltaic performance.

    • Lei Ying
    • , Fei Huang
    •  & Guillermo C. Bazan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vitrimers are malleable networks based on thermally triggered associative exchange reactions and thus can be used for processing, recycling and self-healing materials. Here the authors show how acids and bases affect the exchange kinetics and in turn rationalize these effects mechanistically.

    • Wim Denissen
    • , Martijn Droesbeke
    •  & Filip E. Du Prez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the molecular sequence of polymers and oligomers is a challenging task. Here the authors use a photoligation approach to synthesise macromolecules with functionality at defined positions throughout the chain, and additionally decode the sequence information via tandem mass spectrometry.

    • Nicolas Zydziak
    • , Waldemar Konrad
    •  & Christopher Barner-Kowollik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline polymers with functionalities along the backbone can store and transfer electrons, ions and gases and thus can be used in devices. However, the formation of such materials can be difficult. Here, Lee and others have produced highly crystalline conjugated polymers via two-monomer-connected precursors.

    • Hong-Joon Lee
    • , Yong-Ryun Jo
    •  & Jae-Suk Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Covalent organic frameworks are crystalline porous polymers integrating molecular building blocks into periodic structures. Here, the authors report a general multiple-component condensation strategy that enables the use of one knot and two or three linkers to synthesize complex, anisotropic frameworks.

    • Ning Huang
    • , Lipeng Zhai
    •  & Donglin Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polymer brushes, whereby single layers of polymers are tethered to surfaces, can be made by various methods but greater control over their fabrication is desirable. Here, by pre-assembling polymer chains into 2D crystalline sheets, the authors achieve high precision and unprecedented grafting densities.

    • Tian Zhou
    • , Hao Qi
    •  & Christopher Y. Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemists increasingly seek to control monomer sequencing in aperiodic copolymers. Here, the authors show that the statistical nature of chain growth strongly limits the achievable control, and establish parameters for polymer design that balance precise control with simplicity of synthesis.

    • Guillaume Gody
    • , Per B. Zetterlund
    •  & Simon Harrisson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The intimate mixing of immiscible polymers is desirable both to aid understanding of the fundamental science and for the development of new materials. Here, the authors successfully compatibilize polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) using a porous coordination polymer as a removable template.

    • Takashi Uemura
    • , Tetsuya Kaseda
    •  & Susumu Kitagawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA and other biopolymers encode information based on a sequence of monomers. Here, the authors report a synthetic polymer capable of storing simple binary information which can subsequently be decoded by tandem mass spectroscopy, or permanently erased by heating.

    • Raj Kumar Roy
    • , Anna Meszynska
    •  & Jean-François Lutz

  • Article |

    The most common carbon dioxide-capture technology is solution-based amine scrubbing, which suffers from high operational costs. Here, the authors report a family of solid amine sorbents, formed via cationic polymerization of oxazolines, and evaluate their carbon dioxide sorption performance.

    • Genggeng Qi
    • , Liling Fu
    •  & Emmanuel P. Giannelis

  • Article |

    The straightforward and scalable synthesis and patterning of graphene-based nanomaterials remains a technological challenge. Here, the authors use a CO2infrared laser, under ambient conditions, to directly produce and pattern porous graphene films with three-dimensional networks from commercial polymer films.

    • Jian Lin
    • , Zhiwei Peng
    •  & James M. Tour

  • Article |

    Semiconducting single-wall nanotubes hold promise for the next generation of electronic devices, but separating them from metallic counterparts is still challenging. Here, the authors show how to sort semiconducting nanotubes by selectively stabilizing them in solution via a removable solubilizer.

    • Fumiyuki Toshimitsu
    •  & Naotoshi Nakashima

  • Article |

    Hyperbranched polymers have desirable properties as novel materials, and may be synthesized from homopolymerization of multi-vinyl momomers, although this can form insoluble products at low conversions. Here, the authors produce hyperbranched polymers in high yield owing to a kinetic control mechanism.

    • Tianyu Zhao
    • , Yu Zheng
    •  & Wenxin Wang

  • Article |

    Conjugated polymers are promising materials for organic photovoltaic solar cells. By usingin situgrazing incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction, Ocko and collaborators report the formation of a new type of crystalline arrangement in a conjugated polymer material known as PCDTBT.

    • Xinhui Lu
    • , Htay Hlaing
    •  & Benjamin M. Ocko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biomass-derived monomers are a renewable resource for the production of polymers. Robertet al. develop an auto-tandem catalytic transformation for the synthesis of aliphatic polyesters—'activated' monomers are prepared from dicarboxylic acids, which can be copolymerized with epoxides.

    • Carine Robert
    • , Frédéric de Montigny
    •  & Christophe M. Thomas

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