Supramolecular Interfacial Polymerization: A Controllable Method of Fabricating Supramolecular Polymeric Materials

Abstract

A new method of supramolecular polymerization at the water–oil interface is developed. As a demonstration, an oil-soluble supramonomer containing two thiol end groups linked by two ureidopyrimidinone units and a water-soluble monomer bearing two maleimide end groups are employed. Supramolecular interfacial polymerization can be implemented by a thiol–maleimide click reaction at the water–chloroform interface to obtain supramolecular polymeric films. The glass transition temperature of such supramolecular polymers can be well-tuned by simply changing the polymerization time and temperature. It is highly anticipated that this work will provide a facile and general approach to realize control over supramolecular polymerization by transferring the preparation of supramolecular polymers from solutions to water–oil interfaces and construct supramolecular materials with well-defined properties.