Thiolactones as Functional Handles for Polymer Synthesis and Modification

Abstract

Thiolactone chemistry has emerged as a powerful tool to prepare tailor‐made polymer architectures in a facile and elegant manner, making use of the thiol‐X approach. This contribution highlights the most important features of this approach, employed in various reactive systems, and demonstrates its remarkable versatility involving modular synthesis and modification of polymers: thiolactones can be opened by a wide variety of functional amines and the released thiol can react with a variety of thiol ‘scavengers’.