Catalyst-free multicomponent polymerization of aldehydes, amines and trimethylsilyl cyanide toward poly(α-aminonitrile)s

Abstract

The development of a facile and efficient multicomponent polymerization (MCP) to prepare functional polymers is of vital importance and highly desired. In this work, a MCP of dialdehydes, diamines and trimethylsilyl cyanide for the efficient preparation of cyano-containing polymers poly(α-aminonitrile)s was established, which readily produced soluble poly(α-aminonitrile)s with high weight-average molecular weights (M_w, up to 26 500) in high yields (up to 89%) under catalyst-free conditions. Poly(α-aminonitrile)s possess good thermal and morphological stability as well as excellent film-forming ability. The thin films of polymers display high refractive indices (RI) in the range of 1.7447–1.6793 at 589 nm. Additionally, the poly(α-aminonitrile)s could be further postfunctionalized to generate poly(α-amino acid)s. Therefore, this work not only enriches the family of MCPs but also provides new cyano-containing polymer materials and poly(α-amino acid)s that are potentially applicable in diverse areas.