Functional polymers can be decorated with cleavable solubilizing groups that can be removed by post-treatment such as heat, light, pH changing, etc. The chemical and physical properties of the polymers can changed dramatically after such side-chain cleavage. Here, two different systems bearing cleavable side-chains were investigated. First, thermal cleavable tert-butyloxycarbonyl (t-Boc) group was installed to a serial of isoindigo based random copolymers, in which polyisobutylene (PIB) groups were incorporated as solubilizing side-chain. These polymers showed distinguished physical properties, especially solubility, before and after the post thermal treatment. However, the charge carrier property maintained well, measured through organic field-effect transistor (OFET) devices. This unique property makes these materials a great potential for solvent resistant material for organic electronics. The second example involves polylactic acid (PLA) as cleavable side-chain which could be removed by heat or pH changing. Alkyne group and different length PLA were introduced into polythiophene (PT) backbone. These functionalized PT polymers could be cross-linked by alkyne-alkyne Glaser coupling reaction into bulky materials. The expecting conjugated porous polymer network (cPPN) could be easily achieved by removing the PLA side-chain. In addition, the porosity of cPPN is determined by the length of PLA.

Cleavable side-chain promoted interesting chemistry

251st National Meeting (2016)

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