Synthesis of Narrowly Distributed & alpha;,& omega;-Bifunctionalized Conjugated Polymers

End-functional conjugated polymers are generally synthesizedwithstoichiometric-biased monomer combinations in conventional step growthpolymerizations (SGPs), which lead to broad species distribution anddifficult-to-control end functionality of the polymeric products dueto the uncontrolled nature of the method employed. To overcome suchdisadvantages, a general controlled method was developed for the synthesisof narrowly distributed end-functional conjugated polymers with high-endfunctionality purity and a predefined molecular weight. This strategyrelies on the spatial confinement effect of the nanoreactors, wherebypolymeric species with higher molecular weight have a lower chanceof further involvement in SGP. Numerical calculations on the kineticequations demonstrated the formation of narrowly distributed polymerswith a high degree of chain-end functionalization. Experimental resultsbased on various analysis methods confirmed the controlled synthesisof bifunctionalized poly(p-phenylene)s with high-endfunctionality purity and low dispersity value down to 1.06.