Polymers with acetal linkages in the backbone have great potential as degradable or recyclable materials and can be prepared by chain polymerization of carbonyl compounds. The wide variety of aldehydes and ketones that occur naturally or through sustainable transformations of naturally occurring compounds suggests that they also have promise as sustainable materials. Glyoxylate esters are one such class of monomers that can be polymerized by treatment with bases, but monomer purification is a critical issue and the polymerization mechanism has not been studied in detail. Efforts to control the polymerization of glyoxylate esters from hydroxyl-terminated macroinitiators and to prepare a range of block copolymers with degradable polyglyoxylate blocks, including polymers that form hydrogels, will be discussed, as will attempts to expand these polymerization methods to include other monomers.

Embracing the challenges of aldehyde polymerization

ACS Fall 2021

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