Mechanically interlocked polymers are attractive for their unique, aesthetic topological structures and their material applications. Poly[n]catenanes are a class of polymers comprised solely of interlocked rings and have been synthesized in high yield, using the supramolecular assembly of macrocyclic and linear thread components. Driven by metal-ligand coordination, the macrocycle and thread molecules, which each contain two ligands, self-assemble into an alternating metallosupramolecular polymer, upon addition of metal ions. Effective ring closing reaction of the thread components results in poly[n]catenanes with as many as 640 interlocked rings. NMR chain-end analysis of the poly[n]catenanes shows the presence of three different polymer architectures (linear, branched, and cyclic). Utilizing this synthetic approach, a range of new poly[n]catenanes have been synthesized with a variety of macrocycles and thread-components and investigated by NMR and GPC. These studies revealed that modifications on the components lead to significant changes in the interlocked yield of the reactions as well as the final polymer architectures.

Consequence of component design on the synthesis of poly[n]catenanes

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ACS Fall 2022

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