Easy as ABC!

Block copolymers comprised of long stretches of chemically and physically disparate monomers form richly textured mesoscale materials, however they can be difficult to synthesize using conventional polymer chemistries. As reported recently in Angewandte Chemie, researchers in the laboratory of Professor Marcus Weck have developed a strategy for making ABC triblock copolymers in one pot by building supramolecular recognition moieties into the central "B" block that can then reach out and grab suitably functionalized "A" and "C" blocks. This aggregation step required the synthesis of a unique metallo-organic catalyst that was compatible with a highly specific hydrogen bonding recognition unit.