The recent considerable progress in the base-assisting living cationic polymerization made by our group allowed, for the first time, the controlled alternating cationic copolymerization of VEs with conjugated/aromatic aldehydes. This new technique combined with the findings of our systematic studies on precision synthesis of stimuli-responsive polymers such as thermo-, pH-, and photoresponsive poly[vinyl ethers (VEs)] encouraged us to develop a novel class of sequence-controlled copolymers such as stimuli-responsive alternating or block copolymers. This contribution focuses on the following challenging topics: (i) synthesis of chemically recyclable alternating copolymers of VEs and conjugated/aromatic aldehydes including biomass-based aldehydes, (ii) synthesis of thermo- or pH-responsive alternating copolymers with quantitative acid-degradability, and (iii) synthesis of amphiphilic or stimuli-responsive diblock copoly(VEs) with various functions such as thermoresponsive (LCST- or UCST-type) sol-gel transition, wettability control on the film surface, or micelle shuttling behavior between aqueous and organic phases; selective antibacterial activity; scaffolds for unique assemblies of silica nanospheres.

Synthesis of stimuli-responsive alternating or block copolymers via living cationic polymerization

246th National Meeting (2013)

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