Abstract:
The precisely-defined sequence structures of biomacromolecules, e.g., protein and DNA, enable the sophisticated and unique functions. Inspired by this, polymer scientists have made enormous efforts to achieve the precise sequence regulation in synthetic polymers. Up to date, a variety of approaches toward efficient sequence-regulation based on step-growth and chain-growth polymerization have been developed. This review summarizes the recent progress on the sequence regulation approaches, and highlights the latent monomer strategy for sequence regulation. The latent monomer strategy for sequence regulation developed by our group relies on the thermal-responsive furan/maleimide Diels-Alder reaction. By programmatically manipulation of the polymerization temperature, varieties of sequence-controlled structures are readily produced. Moreover, this approach also bridges from sequence-controlled polymers to graft copolymers with functions and architectures. Finally, a critical outlook on the latent monomer strategy and future research directions are also provided.