Close-packed polymer crystals from two-monomer-connected precursors.

ABSTRACT: The design of crystalline polymers is intellectually stimulating and synthetically challenging, especially when the polymerization of any monomer occurs in a linear dimension. Such linear growth often leads to entropically driven chain entanglements and thus is detrimental to attempts to realize the full potential of conjugated molecular structures. Here we report the polymerization of two-monomer-connected precursors (TMCPs) in which two pyrrole units are linked through a connector, yielding highly crystalline polymers. The simultaneous growth of the TMCP results in a close-packed crystal in polypyrrole (PPy) at the molecular scale with either a hexagonal close-packed or face-centred cubic structure, as confirmed by high-voltage electron microscopy, and the structure that formed could be

SUBMITTER: Lee HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5031798 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature