Recent development in halogen-bonding-catalyzed living radical polymerization

Abstract

Halogen bonding (XB) has been used to catalyze organic reactions and polymerizations, which is an emerging research area. Reversible complexation mediated polymerization (RCMP) is an XB-catalyzed living radical polymerization and is one of the most promising examples of the XB catalysis. RCMP utilizes alkyl iodides as initiating dormant species and electro-donating molecules and ions such as amines, iodide anions, and oxyanions as catalysts. Various initiating dormant species and catalysts were developed, enabiling the synthesis of well-defined homopolymers and block copolymers with complex architectures, chain-end functionalization, photo-polymerization, and industrial application. The use of inexpensive non-metallic catalysts and the accessibility to a wide range of polymer structures are attractive features of RCMP. This mini-review summarizes the current research status of RCMP and its uniqueness brought via the XB catalysis.