Configurationally Chiral SuFEx-Based Polymers

Novel methods to make synthetic chiral polymers are highly desirable given their potential in a rapidly increasing number of bio-inspired applications. The enantiospecific sulfur–fluorine exchange (SuFEx) reaction of chiral di-sulfonimidoyl fluorides (di-SFs) with diphenols, was used to produce high-molecular-weight chiral polymers with configurational backbone chirality. The resulting new class of polymers, polysulfonimidates, can be efficiently produced via this step-growth mechanism for a wide range of di-SFs and diphenols, yielding MnPS up to 283 kDa with a typical dispersity Đ around 1.6. The optical activity of the resulting chiral polymers is largely due to the intrinsic asymmetry of the S atoms (configurational chirality). Finally, the enantiospecificity (ee>98 %) of the polymerization reaction was demonstrated by the degradation of a disulfide-containing polysulfonimidate. This novel route towards configurational main-chain chirality opens up new approaches towards tailor-made chiral polymers with precisely defined properties.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Liang, Dong Dong, Pujari, Sidharam P., Subramaniam, Muthusamy, Besten, Maarten, Zuilhof, Han
Format: Article/Letter to editor biblioteca
Language:English
Subjects:Chiral Polymer, Click Chemistry, Enantiospecific, Polysulfonimidates, SuFEx Reaction,
Online Access:https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/configurationally-chiral-sufex-based-polymers
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Summary:Novel methods to make synthetic chiral polymers are highly desirable given their potential in a rapidly increasing number of bio-inspired applications. The enantiospecific sulfur–fluorine exchange (SuFEx) reaction of chiral di-sulfonimidoyl fluorides (di-SFs) with diphenols, was used to produce high-molecular-weight chiral polymers with configurational backbone chirality. The resulting new class of polymers, polysulfonimidates, can be efficiently produced via this step-growth mechanism for a wide range of di-SFs and diphenols, yielding MnPS up to 283 kDa with a typical dispersity Đ around 1.6. The optical activity of the resulting chiral polymers is largely due to the intrinsic asymmetry of the S atoms (configurational chirality). Finally, the enantiospecificity (ee>98 %) of the polymerization reaction was demonstrated by the degradation of a disulfide-containing polysulfonimidate. This novel route towards configurational main-chain chirality opens up new approaches towards tailor-made chiral polymers with precisely defined properties.