Novel synthetic protocol for supramolecules and polymers by molecular construction and integration based on dynamic covalent chemistry

Dynamic covalent chemistry relates to the utilization of chemical equilibrium systems, i.e., reversible cleavage-rebondage of covalent bond, which is effectively applicable to the molecular architectures in supramolecular chemistry and polymer chemistry. This review deals mainly with molecular integration and molecular conversion of supramolecules and polymers in order to prove significance and utility of the dynamic covalent bond by introducing the representative research studies. Equilibria of imine bond, carbon-carbon double bond, disulfilde bond, trityl carbon-sulfur bond, ester bond, alkoxyamine bond, and so on are typical dynamic covalent bonds, and several important examples for the constructions of interlocked molecules and polymers are described. In the utilization of the dynamic covalent bond in polymer, utility of a few reversibly cleavable covalent bonds included in polymer main chains is also discussed for the formation and transformation of polymers and cyclic polymers.