Highly Orthogonal Functionalization of ADMET Polymers via Photo-Induced Diels-Alder Reactions

Matthias Winkler, Jan O. Mueller, Kim K. Oehlenschlaeger, Lucas Montero de Espinosa, Michael A. R. Meier, and Christopher Barner-Kowollik

Macromolecules Article ASAP

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ma3007043

In this paper, the authors use a photo-catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction (between a photoenol and an olefin) to make tri-block copolymers with PDI~1.2. The central block was made using ADMET for a selective head-to-tail polymerization, resulting hetero- end-functional polymers. The photocatalyzed Diels-Alder reaction is highly selective and efficient, and allowed for a one-pot synthesis of the tri-block copolymers.