Development of Supramolecular Polymers with Unique Chain Structures

Supramolecular polymer chemistry is the newest branch of polymer chemistry. The backbone of supramolecular polymers is maintained by weak noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, π–π stacking interactions, and charge-transfer interactions. Supramolecular polymers have a dynamic nature because noncovalent interactions are reversible; as a result, they are equilibrium between their polymeric and monomeric forms. To date, many supramolecular motifs have been applied for the synthesis of supramolecular polymers, which allows the development of a regular array of large functional molecules, e.g. fullerene, porphyrin, perylene, pyrene, metal complexes, etc. Among the many examples, we describe the successful construction of supramolecular polymers with well-regulated fullerene and porphyrin arrays in the polymer main chain.