Mother Nature achieves remarkable functional diversity from macromolecules with precisely defined structures built using only a few monomers. Despite numerous recent advances towards the goal of precision polymer synthesis, there are still very few examples of non-amide- or non-phosphate-based synthetic polymers that simultaneously possess precise mass, sequence, and stereochemistry. In cases where these features are present, the requisite synthesis is not amenable to facile diversification or scale-up. This talk will describe the development of a synthetic strategy for the efficient synthesis of macromolecules with precise atomic structure. The approach makes use of the seldom-used iterative exponential growth process, which allows for rapid molecular weight increase through iterative monomer activation and coupling reactions. A few critical modifications of this method have allowed us to synthesize precisely defined polymers on preparative scale. The synthesis, properties, and applications of new families of precise macromolecules will be presented.

Progress towards the efficient synthesis of polymers with precisely defined mass, sequence, and stereochemistry

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.