Recent progress of heterocycle ring‐opening (co)polymerization for the synthesis of sequence‐controlled block polyesters and polycarbonates
Hongyu Zhao, Chenyang Hu, Xuan Pang, Xuesi Chen
Abstract
Aliphatic polyesters and polycarbonates are among the promising sustainable polymers, which exhibit unique degradability and chain-chain interactions owing to their heterofunctionality. However, monocomponent aliphatic polyesters and polycarbonates usually suffer from inferior properties and functionalities. By contrast, precisely modulated block copolymers composed of polyesters and polycarbonates give rise to sustainable materials with tailored performance. An efficient approach to synthesize the block copolymers is the ring-opening (co)polymerization of the heterocycle monomers. Herein, this review presents the heterocycle monomer ring-opening (co)polymerization for the formation of sequence-controlled block polyesters and polycarbonates. Available synthetic strategies, different monomers, monomer combinations and the catalyst systems for the formation of different block polyesters and polycarbonates are summarized.