Multi-Polymerization: From Simple to Complex

Multi-polymerization in which different polymerization mechanisms are performed together serves as an essential synthetic methodology for the construction of polymers with specific architectures, constitutions, and properties. Compared to single mechanism polymerization, the scope of multi-polymerization is significantly broadened by both the available synthetic methods and the synthesized polymeric materials. In this mini-review, multi-polymerizations are categorized into three major types based on the logical relationship between different mechanisms: sequential/tandem polymerization, orthogonal/concurrent polymerization, and hybrid polymerization. Each type of multi-polymerization is briefly introduced and summarized. This mini-review also discussed the importance of mutual influence in multi-polymerization and the potential research interests in this field.

Automated summary

Multi-polymerization is an important synthetic method for constructing polymers with specific architectures, constitutions, and properties. It can be categorized into three types based on the logical relationship between different mechanisms: sequential/tandem polymerization, orthogonal/concurrent polymerization, and hybrid polymerization. The mutual influence in multi-polymerization is of great significance in this field.