Abstract
A new method allows chemists to precisely place single monomers at any position within a polymer chain made of other types of monomers. With this single monomer, chemists can add various types of functionality, such as chromophores to produce sensors or another polymer chain to create novel polymer architectures. Previous methods for adding single monomers have lacked precision, adding either multiple monomers or none where only one was desired. In the new method, Yan Xia and coworkers at Stanford University use cyclopropene ester derivatives with ring-opening metathesis polymerization to add individual cyclopropenes at multiple locations in a polymer otherwise made from norbornenes (Chem 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2019.07.017). For examples, if they want to make a 100-unit polymer with the special monomer at about 30% of the total length, they first make a 30-unit polymer and then add the cyclopropene monomer. They then continue the norbornene polymerization with another 70-unit segment. The
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