Ring-opening copolymerization of 2-vinyloxirane with anhydride/carbon dioxide: facile access to backbone-editable polymers with tunable lifecycles.

ABSTRACT: Polymer backbone modification (PBM) is an emerging strategy uniquely suited to tuning the intrinsic properties of polymers. However, its utilization in tuning the degradability of polymers is underexplored, and there is no viable route to backbone-editable polyesters and polycarbonates with tunable lifecycles. In this work, we synthesized a series of backbone-editable polyesters and polycarbonate via ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) of 2-vinyloxirane (VIO) with anhydrides/CO₂. These polymers feature the specific structure necessary for [3,3]-sigmatropic oxo-rearrangements under a Pd catalyst, in which the terminal olefins can undergo rearrangement to trans internal ones and facilitate backbone modification. After optimizing the rearrangement conditions, we were able

SUBMITTER: Niu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12728821 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature