Synthesis of Functional Polymers via Combination of Thiol-Based Click Reactions with RAFT Polymerization

Due to wide range of monomers, mild polymerization conditions and various established polymerization methods, reversible-addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization is a useful living polymerization technique for the design and synthesis of polymers. Click chemistry has been demonstrated as a powerful tool in numerous scientific fields including drugs, polymers and functional materials because of its superior selectivity, modularity and functional group tolerance. At the same time, a series of novel thiol-based click reactions thus emerged. Herein, recent tactics that combine thiol-based click reactions, such as thiol-ene, thiol-yne, thiol-icocyanate, thiol-oxirane and thiol-halo with RAFT technique toward the construction and modification of useful functional polymers are reviewed. The combined thiol-based click reaction/RAFT technique is believed to play a positive role in the design and synthesis of functional polymers.