Supramolecular Assembly-Assisted Synthesis of Responsive Polymeric Materials with Controlled Chain Topologies

摘要

Tremendous developments, ranging from new synthetic strategies, properties, and novel functional applications, have emerged in the field of stimuli-responsive polymeric materials. A variety of highly efficient chemical methodologies have been exploited to synthesize stimuli-responsive polymers, aiming to control their molecular weight, polydispersity, chemical composition, monomer sequence, and chain topologies. Of particular interest is the emerging strategy of supramolecular assembly-assisted polymer synthesis, which possesses combined advantages such as facile accessibility, design versatility, multifunctional integration, and promising functions. In this trend article, recent advances are elaborated concerning the fabrication of stimuli-responsive functional polymers assisted by supramolecular self-assembly. The fabrication of three main types of responsive polymers, namely, linear polymers, non-linear shaped polymers, and crosslinked nanostructures, aided by templates of supramolecular assemblies will be discussed.