Gody, Guillaume, Zetterlund, Per B., Perrier, Sébastien and Harrisson, Simon (2016) The limits of precision monomer placement in chain growth polymerization. Nature Communications, 7 . 10514. doi:10.1038/ncomms10514 ISSN 2041-1723.

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Abstract

Precise control over the location of monomers in a polymer chain has been described as the ‘Holy Grail’ of polymer synthesis. Controlled chain growth polymerization techniques have brought this goal closer, allowing the preparation of multiblock copolymers with ordered sequences of functional monomers. Such structures have promising applications ranging from medicine to materials engineering. Here we show, however, that the statistical nature of chain growth polymerization places strong limits on the control that can be obtained. We demonstrate that monomer locations are distributed according to surprisingly simple laws related to the Poisson or beta distributions. The degree of control is quantified in terms of the yield of the desired structure and the standard deviation of the appropriate distribution, allowing comparison between different synthetic techniques. This analysis establishes experimental requirements for the design of polymeric chains with controlled sequence of functionalities, which balance precise control of structure with simplicity of synthesis.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QD Chemistry
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Chemistry
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Polymerization, Monomers, Block copolymers
Journal or Publication Title:	Nature Communications
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:	2041-1723
Official Date:	1 February 2016
Dates:	Date Event 1 February 2016 Published 21 December 2015 Accepted 15 July 2015 Submitted
Volume:	7
Article Number:	10514
DOI:	10.1038/ncomms10514
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit:	15 November 2016
Date of first compliant Open Access:	15 November 2016
Funder:	Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) (CNRS), Monash-Warwick Alliance, Royal Society (Great Britain). Wolfson Research Merit Award (RSWRMA), Australian Research Council (ARC)
Grant number:	WM130055 (RSWRMA)

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