Yamauchi Haruka, Inayama Syunya, Nakabayashi Mahiro, Hayashi Shotaro
School of Engineering Science, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Tosayamada Miyanokuchi, Kami, Kochi 782-8502, Japan.
Research Center for Molecular Design, Kochi University of Technology, Kami, Kochi 782-8502, Japan.
ACS Macro Lett. 2023 Sep 19;12(9):1264-1271. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.3c00469. Epub 2023 Sep 1.
Polyurethanes are industrially and academically important as soft materials. They are conventionally synthesized by a process based on step-growth polymerization; thus, molecular weight and structural control are impossible. However, the development of a synthetic strategy for polyurethanes remains a big challenge in designing soft materials. Herein, we demonstrate a synthetic methodology for generating polyurethanes with selectable lengths and termini characteristics. The multistep synthetic process offered the systematic synthesis of high-molecular weight, regioregular, and α,ω-urethane telechelics. Various oligomers with order-made repeating units revealed the effective length of the polymer properties. To demonstrate the scope of our methodology, it was also applied to the synthesis of block co-oligomers, three-armed star oligomers, and miktoarm star co-oligomers. Thus, our method allows the synthesis of high-molecular-weight oligomers with complete structural and molecular weight control, which is of enormous value to materials science; particularly the study and application of structure-property relationships in polyurethanes.
聚氨酯作为软质材料在工业和学术领域都具有重要意义。传统上，它们是通过基于逐步增长聚合的过程合成的；因此，无法控制分子量和结构。然而，开发一种聚氨酯的合成策略在设计软质材料方面仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在此，我们展示了一种用于生成具有可选择长度和末端特征的聚氨酯的合成方法。这个多步合成过程实现了对高分子量、区域规整的α,ω - 聚氨酯遥爪聚合物的系统合成。各种具有定制重复单元的低聚物揭示了聚合物性质的有效长度。为了证明我们方法的适用范围，它还被应用于合成嵌段共低聚物、三臂星形低聚物和杂臂星形共低聚物。因此，我们的方法能够合成具有完全结构和分子量控制的高分子量低聚物，这对材料科学具有巨大价值；特别是在聚氨酯结构 - 性能关系的研究和应用方面。
