Synthesis of Interlocked Polymers

Synthesis of polyrotaxanes and polycatenanes is performed basically by using or applying the synthetic methods for rotaxanes and catenanes. 

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Scheme 1 illustrates the simplest structures of rotaxane, catenane, and knot besides polyrotaxane and polycatenane. From the fact that the main chain-type polyrotaxane at the left side is the only interlocked polymer synthesized so far among the three polymers shown at the bottom of the scheme, progress in synthesis of interlocked polymers appears to be sluggish judging from the level of activity in synthetic polymer chemistry in the world. 

It is vital that simple and cheap synthesis of interlocked polymers is achieved in order to make progress in the chemistry of polyrotaxanes and polycatenanes. Since bulk property is essential in polymer science, difficulty in synthesis of interlocked polymers should be avoided, this being different from the case of molecular materials such as molecular devices functioning at a molecular level. Both polyrotaxanes and polycatenanes as well as both rotaxanes and catenanes are becoming easy to synthesize with the progress... 

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