Novel synthesis of long multi-block heteropolymer chains with an ordered sequence and controllable block lengths

It had very long been a dream in polymer science to synthesize long multi-b lock polymer chains with an ordered chain sequence and controllable block l engths. Using ionic or living free radical polymerization or furnishing eac h end of polymer blocks with a reactive functional group, one can only prep are heteropolymer chains with few long blocks, such as diblock and triblock copolymers. The most plausible result so far was a pentablock copolymer. R ecently, using a combination of polymer physics and synthetic chemistry, we have invented self-assembly assisted polycondensation (SAAP). This communi cation reports the results of using this novel method to connect 10-100 tri block polymer chains together to form long multi-block heteropolymer chains with an ordered sequence and controllable block lengths.