Synthesis of ROS-responsive poly(thioacetal)s with narrow molecular weight distributions via lactone ring-opening polymerization

Abstract

We report the first example of chain-growth polymerization of poly(thioacetal)s. A thioacetal-containing 8-membered lactone, 5-phenyl-1,4,6-oxadithiocan-2-one (PTO) and its analogues were polymerized with a diarylphosphate catalyst, bis(3-(2,5-dimethylphenyl)naphthalen-1-yl) phosphate (XNP). The synthesized poly(thioacetal)s and their block copolymer showed narrow molecular weight distributions with dispersity no more than 1.10. The poly(thioacetal)s displayed characteristic ROS-responsive backbone degradation depending upon their structures.