Polymers Going Rigid, Thick, and Laterally Infinite

Abstract

This short review article provides insight into the impact organic chemistry can have on state-of-the-art materials creation. Three cases were selected from the authors' laboratory, the first being 'Suzuki polycondensation', a powerful method with which innovative organic chemistry was successfully transferred to polymer synthesis and which meanwhile has even found technical scale application. The second describes the decoration of linear polymers with a dense layer of regular branch work. Though seemingly a rather esoteric enterprise, these decorations resulted in considerable property changes as compared to other linear polymers and, additionally, led to the discovery of novel properties. Consequently, this area which is commonly referred to as 'dendronized polymers' in a world-wide activity has been developed into a ripe research field, presently under exploration for possible technical application. Finally, an example still very much in its first tumbling steps was selected to give yet another perspective of the role of organic chemistry in a materials-oriented chemistry. It aims at the generation of ultrathin, yet internally strictly defined, sheet-like macromolecules for which a great future is foreseen, e.g. as a 2D platform for the systematic construction of 3D matter.