Organocatalytic Synthesis of Polysulfonamides with Well-Defined Linear and Brush Architectures from a Designed/Synthesized Bis(N-sulfonyl aziridine)

We report a new synthetic methodology for polysulfonamides with well-defined linear and brush architectures by organocatalytic polymerizations. A new monomer, bis(2,3-disubstituted N-sulfonyl aziridine), has been rationally designed/synthesized and used in step-growth polymerization with various bisnucleophiles (dicarboxylic acids, diphenols, and dithiols). The branches or cross-linkages derived from the ring-opening polymerization of N-sulfonyl aziridines are suppressed using this specific bis(aziridine) monomer, resulting in a well-controlled linear polysulfonamide architecture. The synthesized polysulfonamides emit blue fluorescence in solution and exhibit excellent thermal properties with decomposition temperature at 5% weight loss (Td,5%) up to 360.0 °C and glass-transition temperature (Tg) ranging from 62.5 to 199.2 °C. Furthermore, a fast one-pot cascade approach has been developed toward polysulfonamide brush copolymers with a well-controlled grafted chain length.