X-yne click polymerization

Abstract

Alkyne-based click polymerizations have been nurtured into a powerful synthetic technique for the preparation of new polymers with advanced structures and versatile properties. Among them, the emerging thiol-yne, hydroxyl-yne, and amino-yne click polymerizations have made remarkable progress from reactions to applications. These polymerizations avoid the usage of inherently dangerous monomers and are safer to operate than the classical azide-alkyne click polymerization (AACP), making them more prospective for diverse applications. To greatly promote the new alkyne-based click polymerizations beyond AACP, a new concept of “X-yne click polymerization” is proposed to unify them, where “X” denotes the monomers that can react with alkynes under mild reaction conditions, including thiols, alcohols, amines, and other promising ones. In this review, we mainly present a brief account of the progress of X-yne click polymerization and discuss in detail the challenges and opportunities in this field.