Cyclic
polymers have been extensively studied because of their
unique topology and physical properties, while the methods for efficient
synthesis of well-defined bicyclic and multicyclic polymers are limited.
Herein, an effective strategy was developed to synthesize ultralarge-sized
bicyclic polymers by a ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP)-based
blocking-cyclization technique in a simplified feeding procedure,
using the short ladderphane bearing four living ends as the initial
motif. The molecular topology of the bicyclic polymer was clarified
by pieces of evidence and validated by theoretical simulation. Importantly,
the visualized eight-shaped molecular topology was observed. Meanwhile,
the bicyclic polymer exhibited stronger thermal, fluorescence emission,
and mechanical properties and better dielectric and energy storage
performance than its four-arm counterpart, which elucidated the difference
in molecular topology between bicyclic and four-arm polymers. Moreover,
a tetracyclic polymer with a large ring size could be readily obtained.
Therefore, this designed strategy opens new horizons for building
bicyclic and multicyclic polymers using the conventional ROMP and
commercial Grubbs catalyst.
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