Mechanochemical unzipping of insulating polyladderene to semiconducting polyacetylene

• Autores: Zhixing Chen, Jaron A.M. Mercer, Xiaolei Zhu
• Localización: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 357, Nº 6250, 2017, págs. 475-479
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Biological systems sense and respond to mechanical stimuli in a complex manner. In an effort to develop synthetic materials that transduce mechanical force into multifold changes in their intrinsic properties, we report on a mechanochemically responsive nonconjugated polymer that converts to a conjugated polymer via an extensive rearrangement of the macromolecular structure in response to force. Our design is based on the facile mechanochemical unzipping of polyladderene, a polymer inspired by a lipid natural product structure and prepared via direct metathesis polymerization. The resultant polyacetylene block copolymers exhibit long conjugation length and uniform trans-configuration and self-assemble into semiconducting nanowires. Calculations support a tandem unzipping mechanism of the ladderene units.