Training the old dog new tricks: the applications of the Biginelli reaction in polymer chemistry

Recently, the Biginelli reaction, one of the most famous multicomponent reactions, has been introduced into the polymer chemistry to highly efficiently synthesize some interesting functional polymers. In this mini-review, several applications of the Biginelli reaction in polymer chemistry have been summarized, including polycondensation, post-polymerization modification, one-pot synthesis of well-defined polymer, etc. Meanwhile, the utilization of the Biginelli reaction in material science and chemical biology, and the future development of the Biginelli reaction in polymer chemistry have also been discussed.