LAUSR

The development of reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) has made a great contribution not only in controlling the molecular weight and terminal structures but also in the precise synthesis of copolymers. An additional design for controlled propagation via RDRP could lead to control of the order of repeating units, that is, the ‘sequence control’, which has been recognized as the ultimate control of precision polymerizations. In this review article, some concepts and methodologies are summarized for synthesizing sequence-controlled polymers based on RDRP. The development of reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) has made a great contribution not only to control of molecular weight and terminal structures but also to precise syntheses of copolymers. In particular, introducing a new concept into RDRP allows ‘sequence control’, which might lead to construction of ‘alphabet polymer’ bearing well-defined sequence like peptides in nature. Herein, some methodologies to realize sequence control based on RDRP are reviewed.