Eye-Readable Dynamic Covalent Click Reaction and Its Application in Polymer Synthesis

The 1,6-conjugate addition of a stable para-quinone methide of 2,6-di-t-butyl-7-phenyl-p-quinone methide (QM1) and thiol nucleophiles was demonstrated as an eye-readable dynamic covalent click reaction. When applying it in polymer synthesis to couple the QM1 and thiol functionalized polymer building blocks, an eye-readable and efficient method was developed to prepare topological polymers such as block copolymers and bottlebrush polymers with stimulated reversible macromolecular structures. In addition, by applying it in the formation of polymer networks, the dynamic covalent reaction property endowed the resultant cross-linked polymer materials with excellent healable characteristics. This is the first study to employ the QM1-thiol dynamic covalent click reaction to prepare novel dynamic covalent polymer materials.