State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China.
School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Sep 1;60(36):19705-19709. doi: 10.1002/anie.202107106. Epub 2021 Jul 26.
Polymer molecular weight distribution (MWD) is a key parameter of polymers. Here we present a robust method for controlling polymer MWD in controlled cationic polymerizations. A latent mediator strategy was designed and combined with temporal programming to regenerate mediators at different times during polymerization. Both the breadths and shapes of MWD curves were tuned easily by adjusting an external light source. Bimodal, trimodal, and tetramodal distributions were obtained, and the breadths could be varied from 1.06 to 2.09. Polymers with different MWDs prepared by this method had good chain end fidelity, which was demonstrated with successful chain-extension experiments. In addition, the introduction of temporal programming with a computer-controlled single chip for the light source opened an avenue for the use of artificial intelligence in polymer synthesis.
聚合物分子量分布（MWD）是聚合物的关键参数。在这里，我们提出了一种在可控阳离子聚合中控制聚合物 MWD 的稳健方法。设计了一种潜伏性介质策略，并结合时间程序在聚合过程的不同时间再生介质。通过调节外部光源，很容易调整 MWD 曲线的宽度和形状。获得了双峰、三峰和四峰分布，并且可以将宽度从 1.06 变化到 2.09。通过这种方法制备的具有不同 MWD 的聚合物具有良好的链端保真度，这可以通过成功的链延伸实验来证明。此外，使用计算机控制的单片机为光源引入时间程序为聚合物合成中人工智能的应用开辟了道路。
