Controlling stereochemistry in polymers is an effective approach to tailor their thermomechanical and physical properties. Click step-growth polymerizations are extremely mild and efficient reactions that can provide high-performance polymers with precise stereochemistry. Bicyclic sugar-derived monomers, based on isohexides possessing distinct stereoisomerism, were polymerized using thiol-ene click chemistry to create degradable polymers with exceptional mechanical performance. Depending on the backbone stereochemistry, the linear polymers either behave as amorphous elastomers with properties that exceed state-of-the-art rubber materials, or as semi-crystalline thermoplastics with properties comparable to some polyolefins. This approach affords the opportunity to create material portfolios where polymers are compositionally similar yet display divergent bulk properties. In fact, the chemical similarity among these sugar-based materials enables either statistical copolymerization of monomers or blending of isomeric polymers to achieve independent tuning of degradability and mechanical properties.

Decoupling degradability and mechanical properties in stereocontrolled sugar-based polymers

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